Skip to main content
Main

Veal Pie

A savory pie filled with tender veal and optional corned pork, topped with puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Veal and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,930 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Veal Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Parboil the veal

  1. Place the veal in a stewpan and cover with hot water.

  2. Add salt and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  3. Cook until the meat is tender.

  4. Transfer to a dish to cool.

  5. Remove all small bones.

Assemble the pie

  1. Grease a tin or earthen basin with butter.

  2. Line it with pie paste.

  3. Fill halfway with the parboiled veal.

  4. Dot the meat with butter pieces the size of a hickory nut and sprinkle with pepper.

  5. Dredge with flour until white.

  6. Pour in some of the cooking water until nearly full.

  7. Roll out a puff pastry cover, about ½ inch thick.

  8. Cut a slit in the center and make small incisions on either side.

  9. Lay skewers across the pie.

  10. Place the crust on top.

  11. Trim the edges.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1 hour in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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 + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Wheat + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 meat, which becomes tender through simmering before baking.
Wheat flour
Dredged over the meat to thicken the cooking liquid into a lightly set sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the meat and greases the tin.
Pie paste
Forms the structural lining and crust that holds the filling together.

The step that matters

Skimming the boiling veal. Scum rising during the boil can cloud the cooking water and carry impurities into the stock that later forms the pie's sauce, so it should be removed as it forms.

“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.

More veal pie recipes

Cold 6 See all 129 →

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipes