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Veal and Ham Pie

A savory pie filled with veal, ham, hard‑boiled eggs, parsley, and lemon juice, baked in pastry.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the veal into strips and the ham into small pieces.

  2. Season the veal and roll it as directed for steak and kidney pie.

  3. Cut the hard-boiled eggs into quarters lengthwise.

Assemble the pie

  1. Half-fill a pie dish with the rolls of veal and ham.

  2. Sprinkle half of the chopped parsley and lemon juice over the meat.

  3. Add pieces of hard-boiled eggs throughout.

  4. Fill the dish with the remaining meat and sprinkle the rest of the parsley and lemon juice on top.

  5. Place the egg pieces among the meat again and pour in the cold water.

  6. Cover the pie with rough puff, flaky, or short pastry as directed for steak pie.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 1½ hours at 350°F (175°C).

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Provides the main meaty texture and rich flavor that becomes tender during slow baking.
Ham
Adds savory flavor and fat, which keeps the filling moist as it cooks.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and a firm, creamy texture to the filling.
Pastry
Forms a sealed crust that traps steam and moisture inside the pie while it bakes.
Flour
Lightly thickens the cooking liquid so the filling becomes less watery.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the rich meat and egg.

The step that matters

Covering and baking the pie. Pastry must seal the dish fully so steam and juices stay inside, keeping the meat moist and tender as it cooks slowly at 350°F.

“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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