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Partridge Pie

A savory pie made with partridges, veal steak, ham, mushrooms, parsley, and puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Partridge Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the partridges

  1. Pick and singe the partridges.

  2. Cut off the legs at the knee.

  3. Season the partridges with pepper, salt, parsley, and mushrooms.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the veal steak and ham slice at the bottom of a dish.

  2. Add the seasoned partridges.

  3. Pour in the broth.

  4. Cover the dish with puff pastry.

  5. Brush the pastry with beaten egg.

  6. Bake.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful under the pastry.
Veal steak
Lays a meaty base that adds savoury depth to the pie.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour to the meat layers.
Broth
Supplies moisture so the meat stays juicy as it cooks.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky crust that seals and covers the filling.
Egg
Brushed on the pastry to promote even browning and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Covering the dish with pastry. The pastry must seal the dish well so steam stays inside and the meat cooks gently in its own juices. A gap lets moisture escape and the filling dries out.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mushroom, veal, ham, 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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