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Veal, and Sweetbread Pie

A savory pie filled with veal, sweetbread, egg yolks, oysters, and gravy, topped with puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Veal, and Sweetbread Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Season the veal well.

  2. Clean the sweetbread.

  3. Blanch the sweetbread.

  4. Cut the sweetbread into pieces.

  5. Season the sweetbread pieces.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a dish, layer the veal, sweetbread, egg yolks, and oysters.

  2. Strain the oyster liquor and mix it with the gravy.

  3. Pour the mixture over the meat.

  4. Line the sides of the dish with puff pastry.

  5. Cover the dish with a lid of the same pastry.

  6. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Cut the lid into pieces.

  2. Arrange the pieces around the sides and top the meat with lemon slices.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  3. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Veal + oystertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together988 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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 meaty bulk and savory flavor of the filling.
Sweetbread
Adds a soft, tender, rich texture that contrasts with the firmer veal.
Egg yolks
Add richness and body to the filling.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savory flavor that seasons the filling.
Gravy
Supplies moisture and concentrated savory flavor that keeps the meat from drying out.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp crust that browns in the hot oven.

The step that matters

Blanch the sweetbread. Blanching firms the delicate gland so it can be cleaned and cut neatly. Overcooking it makes the sweetbread tough or crumbly, so it should be heated just until firm.

“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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