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Veal Olive Pie

A pie of thin veal slices rolled with ham, parsley, and breadcrumbs, topped with short crust pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal Olive Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut veal into very thin oblong slices, 3 inches by 1.5 inches.

  2. Finely chop the ham and parsley.

  3. Mix the chopped ham and parsley with bread crumbs, melted butter, beaten eggs, and half of the salt, pepper, and paprika.

  4. Spread the mixture over the veal slices.

  5. Roll the veal slices up.

Assemble the pie

  1. Fill a deep pie dish with the rolls, making the center higher than the sides.

  2. Sprinkle the remaining seasoning over the rolls.

  3. Add the cold water.

  4. Roll out short crust pastry, 1 inch larger than the top of the pie dish.

  5. Cut off an inch all around the pastry.

  6. Wet the edge of the dish.

  7. Press the pastry onto the dish, sealing it neatly.

  8. Wet the edge again.

  9. Place the top crust on, trimming with a sharp knife.

  10. Scallop the edges.

  11. Make a steam hole in the top.

  12. Brush with beaten egg.

  13. Decorate with pastry cut into leaves.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes, then reduce to 350°F (175°C) and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  2. Before serving, fill the pie with boiling water or stock.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Parsley + white peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the pie and becomes tender during the long, moist bake.
Eggs
Bind the bread crumb stuffing and, brushed on top, give the crust a golden browning.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bulk out the stuffing so it holds together inside the rolls.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the stuffing spread over the veal.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the stuffing.
Short crust pastry
Forms a sealed, crisp crust that holds the filling and steam inside the dish.

The step that matters

Sealing the pastry to the dish. Wetting the dish edge and pressing the pastry on firmly seals the crust, so steam builds inside and the filling cooks through rather than leaking out.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, lemon, ham, parsley, bread, butter, egg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, lemon, ham, parsley, bread, butter, 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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