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A Sea Pie

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

A Sea Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Layer slices of boiled pork or salt beef at the bottom of a small Dutch oven.

  2. Add a layer of sliced potatoes and onions, then season with salt, pepper, thyme, and parsley.

  3. Add soaked crackers and a layer of fowl or veal.

  4. Cover with a pastry that is not too rich, then repeat the layers until the oven is full.

  5. Place a little butter between each layer.

  6. Pour in water until it reaches the top crust, then add wine, catsup, and pounded cloves.

  7. Let it stew until just enough gravy remains.

  8. Serve in a deep dish and pour the gravy on top.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, pepper, thyme, parsley, veal, butter):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, pepper, thyme, parsley, veal, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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