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Veal Pot Pie

A savory pie of veal, pickled pork, potatoes, and stock, topped with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Veal Pot Pie

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

  1. Cut the veal into serving pieces.

  2. Slice the pork thinly.

  3. Layer the veal and pork in a pie dish, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper.

  4. Fill the dish with stock.

  5. Cover with an inverted dish.

Cook the filling

  1. Cook in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1½ hours, then cool slightly.

  2. If using cold meat, skip the preliminary cooking.

  3. Add stock to retain moisture.

Top and bake

  1. Place the potatoes on top.

  2. Cover with pastry.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 40 to 45 minutes.

  4. Add more stock through a hole in the top before serving.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. 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 pie and, slowly cooked, becomes tender and savoury.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savoury flavour that seasons the meat and stock beneath the crust.
Stock
Keeps the meat moist during long cooking and carries flavour through the filling.
Potatoes
Add bulk and soft, starchy body that absorbs the savoury juices.
Pastry
Encloses the filling and browns in the hot oven to form the crust.

The step that matters

Add stock to retain moisture. Lean meat dries out during long oven cooking. Extra stock keeps the veal juicy and supplies liquid that the filling needs to stay tender.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, pepper. 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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