Name: Veal and Ham Pie
Ingredients: 1 pound veal, trimmed and cut into scallops; 1 pound ham, trimmed and cut into scallops; Salt and pepper, to taste; 1 handful mushrooms, finely chopped; 1 handful parsley, finely chopped; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 shallot, finely chopped; 2 cups Veloute sauce or good stock; 6 hard-boiled egg yolks; Puff pastry, for covering

Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

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.

Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,982 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal: Provides the main meaty body of the filling.
Ham: Adds savory, salty flavor to the filling alongside the veal.
Veloute sauce or stock: Supplies moisture and body that binds the filling together.
Hard-boiled egg yolks: Add richness and a creamy texture to the filling.
Puff pastry: Forms a flaky, golden crust that browns in the oven.

“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.