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Raised Ham Pie

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 to 5 hours, then wash and scrape it well.

  2. Cut off the knuckle and boil it for 30 minutes.

  3. Trim the ham neatly, remove the rind, and place it in an oval stew pan.

  4. Add the Madeira or sherry and enough veal stock to cover the ham.

  5. Let it stew for 2 hours or until three-quarters done, then remove and cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare a crust large enough to hold the ham and place the ham inside.

  2. Surround the ham with veal forcemeat, cover, and decorate.

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

Glaze and serve

  1. Once done, remove the cover, glaze the top, and pour the sauce made from the stewing liquid.

  2. To make the sauce, skim the fat from the liquid, thicken with flour and butter, and add browning and 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. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  5. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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
Forms the main body of the pie and provides the savoury, meaty filling.
Veal forcemeat
Surrounds the ham, adding a moist, richly flavoured layer inside the pie.
Madeira or sherry
Adds aromatic depth and a subtle sweetness to the stewing liquid and sauce.
Veal stock
Provides moisture and body for stewing the ham and forming the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the strained stewing liquid into a smooth sauce.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and helps bind the flour into a smooth thickening.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour and butter must be cooked into the skimmed liquid so it thickens smoothly; adding flour raw or leaving fat in the liquid results in lumps or a greasy sauce.

“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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