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Veal Pie with Forcemeat

A veal pie made with forcemeat, bacon, ham, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Veal Pie with Forcemeat

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the rind, gristle, bone, and brown parts from the bacon.

  2. Mince the veal and any trimmings very finely.

  3. Add spiced salt to the minced veal and mix well in a mortar until it forms a stiff paste.

Assemble the pie

  1. Line a plain oval pie mold with short paste.

  2. Layer one-fourth of the forcemeat at the bottom of the mold.

  3. Add a layer of ham.

  4. Add another layer of forcemeat.

  5. Add pieces of veal.

  6. Sprinkle with spiced salt.

  7. Add another layer of forcemeat.

  8. Add more ham.

  9. Finish with forcemeat.

  10. Cover with three rashers of fat bacon and a bay leaf.

  11. Cover with paste.

Bake

  1. Bake for 2 hours at 350°F (175°C), covering the top with buttered paper.

  2. Check doneness with a skewer.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the forcemeat, giving the pie its meaty texture and structure.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the lean veal from drying out as it bakes.
Ham
Adds savory flavor and contrast to the layers of forcemeat.

The step that matters

Mixing the forcemeat to a stiff paste. Working the spiced salt into the minced veal dissolves and draws out its proteins, so the meat binds into a cohesive forcemeat that holds its shape when sliced rather than crumbling.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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