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Hot Snipe Pie, with Truffles

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Hot Snipe Pie, with Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove feathers and singe the snipes. Cut off their necks and feet, then halve them.

  2. Remove the backbone and wipe the inside with a napkin.

  3. In a sauté pan, combine melted butter, grated bacon, parsley, mushrooms, truffles, shallot, salt, and nutmeg.

  4. Add the snipes and simmer on moderate heat for 20 minutes, turning occasionally to ensure even seasoning.

  5. Let the mixture cool, then chop the snipes' meat and pound it in a mortar.

  6. Mix in godiveau, sweet herbs, and nutmeg.

  7. Prepare a pie crust 7 inches in diameter and 4 inches high.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

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

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, mushroom, truffle, shallot, nutmeg, meat):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, mushroom, truffle, shallot, nutmeg, meat. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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