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Veal Pot-pie

A stew of veal in a crust made from flour, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Veal Pot-pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Place the veal pieces in a pot with 1 quart of water.

  2. Heat over low heat until just before boiling, then skim the surface.

  3. Add 1 teacup of cold water and turn the meat to help scum rise, then remove all scum.

  4. Boil hard and season with pepper and salt, remembering the crust will absorb some seasoning.

Make the crust

  1. For the crust, mix flour, butter, and a little salt, then add enough milk to form a soft dough.

  2. Knead well and let rise until light, about 1 hour in winter or 30 minutes in summer.

  3. If making in summer, add ½ teaspoon baking soda when kneading the second time.

Cook and serve

  1. Cut the crust into equal pieces without rolling or molding, and lay them on top of the meat to cover it.

  2. Cover the pot tightly and let it boil slowly for 1 hour, wrapping a cloth around the lid if it doesn't fit tightly.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meat and rich flavor that the broth and crust accompany.
All-purpose flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the crust together and becomes tender when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crust and contributes richness.
Milk
Hydrates the flour so the dough forms and browns slightly as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts to lighten the dough and help it rise in summer conditions.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the meat heats. Removing it before boiling keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

“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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