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Raised Ham Pie

A pie made with ham, forcemeat, suet, and a butter‑flour crust, baked with Madeira wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the crust

  1. Melt the butter in boiling water and mix with flour to form a paste.

  2. Knead the paste until it is a good consistency, but not too stiff.

  3. Shape the paste as desired for the crust.

Assemble the pie

  1. Trim the ham to fit the crust and ensure it can hold some forcemeat.

  2. Cover the ham with the paste, pinch the edges, and decorate the top.

  3. Before baking, pour in the Madeira wine.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake gently at 300°F (150°C) for four hours.

  2. Serve with a good cullis, ensuring it is not too salty.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

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

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, making the paste tender and easy to shape.
Flour
Forms the structure of the paste that holds the pie together.
Ham
Provides the savoury meat filling that the crust encloses.
Madeira wine
Adds moisture and a sweet, aromatic flavour to the filling.
Raw egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the filling.

The step that matters

Bake gently. Low, slow heat cooks the ham and filling through without drying or toughening the meat, while the pastry sets and browns evenly.

“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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