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Hams — Continued

A pastry pie filled with chopped ham and bacon, topped with aspic jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Hams — Continued

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 pastry

  1. Butter a cold pie-mould.

  2. Line the pie-mould with short pastry.

Make and layer the filling

  1. Mix the chopped ham and fat bacon.

  2. Season the mixture highly.

  3. Layer the forcemeat at the bottom and sides of the pastry.

  4. Fill it with alternate layers of fried ham and forcemeat.

  5. Build the filling in a dome shape.

  6. Place layers of fat bacon on top.

Close and decorate

  1. Roll out the remaining pastry to a thin round.

  2. Cover the pie with the pastry.

  3. Trim the edges of the pastry.

  4. Moisten the edges with water.

  5. Pinch the edges together.

  6. Roll out the trimmings.

  7. Cut out fancy leaves from the trimmings.

  8. Dampen the leaves slightly.

  9. Arrange the leaves on top of the pie.

  10. Brush the pie with beaten egg.

Bake and set

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 10 minutes.

  2. Cover the pie with paper.

  3. Bake for 2 hours.

  4. Let the pie cool for 1 hour.

  5. Pour in the tepid aspic jelly through the hole at the top.

  6. Let it cool completely before serving on a folded napkin or ornamental dish-paper.

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. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 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

Lean cooked ham
Provides the main savoury meat filling and its flavour.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and richness to the forcemeat and filling, keeping it moist.
Beaten egg
Brushed on the crust to promote browning and a glossy finish.
Aspic jelly
Poured in after baking to fill the pie and set into a savoury jelly.

The step that matters

Pouring in the aspic jelly. The aspic must be tepid and poured after the pie has cooled. Hot liquid would melt the fat and loosen the forcemeat, while cold aspic would not flow through the hole into the gaps and set evenly.

“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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