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Turkey and Ham Pie

A chilled pie of sliced turkey, ham, bacon, parsley, spices, and broth or gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Turkey and Ham Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and broth

  1. Trim off the browned skin and edges from the turkey meat. Place the turkey meat aside, covered.

  2. Break up the turkey bones and put them in a stewpan with gristle and skin. Make a broth using the bones and any leftover meat.

Assemble the pie

  1. Weigh the turkey meat and take half that weight in sliced ham and a quarter in bacon.

  2. Sprinkle parsley at the bottom of a pie dish, then layer the meats. Sprinkle spiced pepper, thyme, and marjoram over the layers.

  3. Pour the broth or gelatin over the meat and refrigerate until cold.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey meat
Forms the main body of the pie and gives it its meaty bulk and texture.
Ham
Adds savoury flavour and a firmer, sliceable texture between the layers.
Bacon
Contributes smoky, salty fat that flavours the meat layers as the pie sets.
Turkey bones and gristle
Release collagen into the broth, which sets as a gel when chilled to hold the pie together.

The step that matters

Pour the broth or gelatin over the meat and refrigerate until cold. Collagen from the bones and gristle, or added gelatin, must be fully liquid when poured and then chilled long enough to set. A thin or weak broth will not gel, so the pie will not hold its slices.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, meat, ham, pepper, thyme, marjoram, gelatin):

  1. Winter savoryfits about as well
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Rosemaryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, meat, ham, pepper, thyme, marjoram, gelatin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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