Name: Ham Pie, Raised
Ingredients: 1½ pounds fowl (or equal parts fowl and ham); ½ pound ham (or equal parts fowl and ham); Salt and pepper to taste; Zest of 1 lemon; A pinch of nutmeg or mace; A pinch of cayenne pepper; 1 teaspoon fresh parsley, finely chopped; ¼ teaspoon fresh thyme (or a saltspoonful of dried mixed herbs); Stock from the bones

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Ham Pie, Raised

Ingredients

1½ pounds fowl (or equal parts fowl and ham)
½ pound ham (or equal parts fowl and ham)
Salt and pepper to taste
Zest of 1 lemon
A pinch of nutmeg or mace
A pinch of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon fresh thyme (or a saltspoonful of dried mixed herbs)
Stock from the bones

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the fowl and ham as directed for raised veal pie.
Season the meat with salt, pepper, lemon zest, nutmeg, mace, and cayenne.
Add chopped parsley and thyme or dried herbs.

Assemble and bake

Use a crust suitable for veal and ham pie.
Layer the fowl and ham or use ham forcemeat.
Optionally, add sliced hard-boiled eggs.
Moisten the mixture with stock and stew while the pie bakes.
Bake until golden and serve hot.

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.

Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,973 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl: Provides the main meat, giving the pie its body and savoury flavour.
Ham: Adds salty, savoury flavour that contrasts with the mild fowl.
Lemon zest: Adds bright aroma and a touch of acidity to the seasoned meat.
Stock: Moistens the filling so it stays juicy as the pie bakes.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, lemon, parsley, thyme):

Marjoramfits better
Winter savoryfits better
Sagefits better
Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, lemon, parsley, thyme. 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.