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Veal-and-ham Pie

A savory pie filled with veal and ham in a lard and flour 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Combine veal, ham, and water in a pan.

  2. Simmer for 1½ hours.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Chop the meat finely.

  5. Add gravy, salt, pepper, and gelatine to the meat.

Make the crust

  1. Rub lard into flour in a bowl.

  2. Add coarse sea salt to the flour mixture.

  3. Mix with boiling water until a dough forms.

  4. Let the dough cool.

  5. Roll out the dough and shape it into a pie crust.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill the crust with the meat mixture.

  2. Cover with another layer of dough.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

  5. Veal + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 body and savory flavor of the filling.
Ham
Adds salty, savory flavor that seasons the meat filling.
Gelatine
Sets the chopped meat filling into a firm, sliceable texture as it cools.
Lard
Fat rubbed into the flour shortens the dough, giving a tender, crumbly crust.
Flour
Forms the gluten and starch network that gives the pie crust its structure.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour with boiling water. The boiling water must be worked in while the dough is still warm, because the starch swells and the dough becomes pliable; once it cools and stiffens, it cracks when rolled and shaped.

“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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