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Raised Ham Pie

A ham pie with veal forcemeat crust, stewed in Madeira or sherry and veal stock, finished with a browned sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raised Ham Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham for 4-5 hours.

  2. Wash and scrape the ham well.

  3. Cut off the knuckle.

  4. Boil the ham for 30 minutes.

  5. Trim the ham neatly.

  6. Remove the rind.

Stew the ham

  1. Place the ham in an oval stew pan.

  2. Add the Madeira or Sherry.

  3. Add enough veal stock to cover the ham.

  4. Let it stew for 2 hours or until three-quarters cooked.

  5. Cool the ham.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare a crust large enough to hold the ham and veal forcemeat.

  2. Place the ham in the crust.

  3. Surround the ham with the veal forcemeat.

  4. Cover the crust.

  5. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 1.5 hours.

  6. Remove the cover.

  7. Glaze the top.

Make the sauce

  1. Prepare the sauce.

  2. Skim the fat from the stewing liquid.

  3. Thicken the liquid with flour and butter.

  4. Add browning sauce.

  5. Add cayenne pepper.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Ham
Is the main body of the pie, cooked slowly until tender and flavourful.
Madeira or sherry
Adds aromatic, slightly sweet depth to the stewing liquid and sauce.
Veal stock
Provides savoury body and moisture as the ham stews and becomes the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the stewing liquid into a smooth, coating sauce.
Butter
Enriches the thickened sauce and helps give it a smooth, rounded texture.

The step that matters

Thicken the liquid with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked with the fat and stirred into hot liquid to avoid lumps and to thicken evenly. Skimming fat first keeps the sauce from tasting greasy.

“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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