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Veal and Ham Pie

A savory pie made with veal, ham, herbs, egg yolks, and gravy, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 and Ham Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the veal into square pieces and layer them in a pie dish.

  2. Sprinkle a portion of the herbs, spices, and sliced yolks of eggs over the veal.

  3. Thinly slice the ham and add a layer on top.

  4. Continue layering until the dish is full, ensuring ham is on top.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the pie crust around the edge of the dish, pour in the water, and cover with the crust, leaving an opening on top.

  2. Brush the top with the yolk of an uncooked egg.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 to 1.5 hours, longer if the pie is large.

  4. After baking, pour in nearly ½ cup of strong gravy through the opening.

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

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

  2. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  4. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

Mace and pepper 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 cutlets
Forms the main meat filling, becoming tender and savoury as it cooks slowly under the crust.
Boiled ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that layers through the veal filling.
Eggs
Hard-boiled yolks add richness and body to the filling; the raw yolk glaze browns the crust.
Strong gravy
Added after baking to restore moisture and meaty flavour lost during cooking.

The step that matters

Pouring in the gravy after baking. Adding the gravy before baking would be lost to evaporation and overcooking. Pouring it in after baking, through the top opening, keeps the filling moist and well flavoured.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, pepper, egg. 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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