Name: Veal Pie
Ingredients: veal, cut into small pieces; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; mace, to taste; cayenne, to taste; 4 hard-boiled eggs, yolks only; weak gravy; slices of bacon or ham (optional); pastry for the pie

Why it works: Veal and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Veal 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 the filling

Season the veal with pepper, salt, mace, and cayenne.
Place the seasoned meat in a pie dish.
Add the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs in different spots in the pie.
Pour in enough weak gravy to nearly fill the dish.
Add slices of bacon or ham if desired.

Cover and bake

Roll out the pastry to ½ inch thick and cover the dish with it.
Seal the edges and brush the top with egg.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours.

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.

Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,264 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,257 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,761 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Veal: Forms the main meat filling and becomes tender during the long, slow bake.
Hard-boiled eggs: Yolks add richness and a creamy, crumbly texture to the filling.
Weak gravy: Supplies moisture so the meat stays juicy and the filling does not dry out.
Pastry: Encloses the filling and browns on top, sealing in moisture while baking.