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Veal and Ham Pie

A savory pie with layers of stewed veal, ham, forcemeat, hard‑boiled egg yolks, and puff pastry, topped with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Veal and Ham Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Stew the veal very slowly for about 30 minutes, then cut into small squares about 2 inches long.

  2. Place the veal at the bottom of a dish and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Add a layer of ham, followed by a layer of forcemeat.

  4. Place the slices of hard-boiled egg on top of the veal.

  5. Fill the dish with layers, finishing with a top layer of ham.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour in the gravy and cover with puff pastry, decorating the center with leaves.

  2. Before baking, brush the crust with egg yolk.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.

  4. Pour in the remaining gravy through a funnel after baking.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

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; slow stewing keeps it tender and moist.
Breadcrumbs
Bind the forcemeat and absorb juices, giving it a soft, cohesive texture.
Eggs
Bind the forcemeat and set during baking to hold the layers together.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and rich as it bakes.
Gravy
Supplies moisture so the filling stays juicy under the pastry.

The step that matters

Pour in the remaining gravy through a funnel after baking. Adding liquid after baking lets it fill gaps without the pastry going soggy during cooking, keeping the crust crisp and the filling moist.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, egg. 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.

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