Skip to main content
Main

Veal and Ham Pie

A savory pie filled with veal, ham, eggs, and gravy, topped with puff pastry.

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

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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

  1. Cut the veal into thin slices and the ham into small pieces.

  2. Roll the ham in the veal, seasoning each roll with parsley, sweet herbs, salt, and pepper.

  3. Layer the rolls in a dish, adding hard-boiled eggs in between.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour half the gravy around the layers and cover with pastry.

  2. Cut out leaves from the pastry to decorate the top.

  3. Brush the top with a beaten egg and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1½ to 2 hours.

Finish with gravy

  1. If the remaining gravy is not jelly-like, boil it quickly and add 3 sheets of gelatine.

  2. Once the pie is baked, pour the gravy mixture in and let it cool.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  4. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main meat layers and gives the pie its substantial, sliceable body.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour that seasons the veal rolls throughout.
Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs add firmness and structure between the layers when sliced.
Gravy
Supplies moisture and, once set with gelatine, a jelly that holds the pie together.
Rough puff pastry
Rises and turns flaky and crisp in the oven, forming the protective top crust.

The step that matters

Testing and setting the remaining gravy. Gelatine only sets when the gravy is hot enough to dissolve it and then cools. If the gravy is not jelly-like, boiling it briefly and adding gelatine ensures it will gel, giving a firm, sliceable jelly once the pie cools.

“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.

You might also like

Veal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes