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Veal and Ham Pie

A savory pie filled with veal cutlets, ham slices, and veal stuffing, topped with pie crust and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Veal and Ham Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Season the veal cutlets with white pepper.

  2. Layer the veal and ham in a pie dish, alternating with veal stuffing.

  3. Pour the veal gravy or water over the meat.

  4. Cover with meat pie paste.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1 to 1½ hours at 350°F (175°C).

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. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  3. Veal + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,890 recipes

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

  4. Veal + white peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. White pepper + hamtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together535 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal cutlets
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and moist during the long, gentle bake.
Ready-dressed ham
Adds savory, salty flavor that contrasts with the mild veal.
Veal stuffing
Fills the layers and adds flavor and body between the meat slices.
Veal gravy or water
Supplies moisture that keeps the meat juicy and forms a sauce as it cooks.
Meat pie paste
Encloses the filling, holding in steam and moisture while the pie bakes.

The step that matters

Pour the veal gravy or water over the meat. Liquid added before baking keeps the lean veal from drying out. Too little liquid can leave the pie dry, while the enclosing crust traps steam and moisture during the long bake.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, meat. 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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