No. 2568

Veal and Ham Pie

Pate de Veau et de Jambon

Butter a large pie mold, line it with pie paste (No. 144), and lay it on a buttered paper, and this on a tart plate; garnish the insides with thin slices of fat pork. Fill the bottom and sides with forcemeat made with two pounds of fresh pork and veal, half of each, and two pounds of fat pork; season with salt, pepper and fine herbs; on this forcemeat lay slices of cooked lean ham, and over a layer of forcemeat; on this a layer of thick slices of kernel of veal larded with fat pork (No. 2, Fig. 53), and seasoned highly; put in more forcemeat with finely chopped lean ham; place slices of fat pork over, and a bit of thyme and bay leaf; cover with a flat of the same paste, forming a crest, pinch the edges and egg over twice; on top lay a cover of puff paste (No. 146); make a hole in the center to act as a chimney. Egg over twice; bake in a moderate oven for twice; bake in a moderate oven for two hours and a half. To be well assured of its being done thrust a trussing needle through, and if it penetrates easily and comes out hot and dry, then the pie is sufficiently cooked; when cold fill with jelly.

← No. 2567 Snipe Pie Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2569 Woodcock Pie →

For the Modern Kitchen

A raised cold pie of the kind Ranhofer built for buffet service: a pastry case, layered forcemeat and larded veal, baked slowly and then filled with aspic once cold. The instructions assume a professional larder, so a few things need translating.

The hinge: fill with jelly while the pie is coldAs the pie cools the meat shrinks and leaves gaps under the crust. A well-clarified, strongly set meat aspic poured through the central chimney fills those voids, which is what makes a cold pie sliceable rather than crumbling. The jelly must be barely liquid and the pie fully cold, or it will soak into the pastry.
Oven temperatureThe book says only "moderate oven" and does not give degrees; a modern reading of roughly 325-350F is a reasonable equivalent. Two and a half hours at that heat suits a deep mold; if the crust colors too fast, shield the top with foil rather than dropping the temperature, and take the center to at least 160F.
The doubled line"bake in a moderate oven for twice; bake in a moderate oven for two hours and a half" is a duplication in the text as transmitted, whether a printer's slip or a transcription error. Read it as one instruction: bake two and a half hours.
Kernel of vealThe noix de veau, the rounded muscle of the top round or cushion from the leg. A modern butcher will call it veal top round; ask for it in one piece so you can cut thick slices.
Fat porkRead as unsmoked pork fat; back fat is the usual modern substitute. The recipe sets two pounds of it against two pounds of lean pork and veal, an unusually rich proportion that is what keeps the sliced pie moist; cutting it back gives a dry farce.
LardingThe reference (No. 2, Fig. 53) points to the book's larding illustration. A strip of fat laid on top of each slice, or a thin sheet of fat wrapped around, does the same job with far less trouble.
Mold and supportThe "large pie mold" is a hinged raised-pie mold or a deep spring-form. The buttered paper and tart plate underneath are there to catch leaking fat and to let you move a heavy pie without breaking the case; a parchment-lined sheet pan serves.
Egging over twiceTwo coats of beaten egg, the second after the first has dried, give the deep gloss expected on a cold buffet pie. Do not seal the chimney when you glaze it.
Yield and servingThe recipe specifies four pounds of forcemeat, plus unstated amounts of ham and larded veal, so this is a large pie for buffet service. Chill after the aspic is added and serve in thin slices with pickles or a sharp salad.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of a French-trained kitchen working at scale, and its long chapter of cold dishes reflects the era's grand buffets, where a pie like this was as much architecture as food. The raised pie built in a mold, lined with fat, layered with forcemeat and finished with aspic, is straight out of the French charcutier's repertoire, where such pieces were called pates en croute; the pastry is often said to have begun as a sturdy, largely inedible container that let a cook bake and store meat, becoming something worth eating only later. Veal and ham is among the most enduring of these pairings on both sides of the Channel, mild veal against cured pork, and the English version survives as a picnic pie to this day. The neighboring entries here for snipe and woodcock pie are a reminder of how much of the 1890s larder rested on wild birds that are hard to come by now, being game that cannot generally be bought.