Name: Veal and Ham Ties
Ingredients: 1 pound veal, cut into 4-inch square pieces and ½ inch thick; Thin slices of uncooked ham, mild bacon, or pickled pork; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced; Stock gravy (optional)

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal and Ham Ties

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 pound veal, cut into 4-inch square pieces and ½ inch thick
Thin slices of uncooked ham, mild bacon, or pickled pork
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
Stock gravy (optional)

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 and bake

Layer the veal pieces in a baking dish with slices of ham, bacon, or pork.
Sprinkle chopped parsley, pepper, and salt over the layers.
Add slices of hard-boiled eggs on top.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 1¼ hours.

Serve

Pour a little stock gravy into the hole made in the top before serving.
For extra flavor, add small balls of veal stuffing.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,264 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,766 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 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: Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender during slow baking.
Ham, bacon, or pickled pork: Adds salty, savoury flavour and fat that enriches the meat as it cooks.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft, firm texture to the layers.
Parsley: Adds fresh, green aroma that brightens the savoury meat.

“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.