Name: French Pie of Larks
Ingredients: 1 pound all-purpose flour; 6 ounces unsalted butter, softened; 3 egg yolks; water as needed; 12 larks, cleaned and prepared; pork sausage meat (amount as needed); clarified butter for greasing

Why it works: Pork and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,208 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

French Pie of Larks

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 dough

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, rub the butter into the flour until crumbly.
Add the egg yolks and a little water, mixing to form a smooth dough.
Butter a small round pie mold with clarified butter.
Shape the dough into a ball, roll it out to about ¼ inch thick, and line the mold.

Fill and bake

Prepare the larks by stuffing them with the sausage meat.
Place the stuffed larks in the mold, reserving some sausage meat to cover them.
Cover the larks with the remaining dough, crimping the edges to seal.
Bake for about 1 hour until golden brown.

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.

Pork + meattop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,208 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,933 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour: Forms the dough's structure once mixed with liquid and fat.
Unsalted butter: Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour and creating a crumbly, flaky texture.
Egg yolks: Add richness and binding, helping the dough hold together smoothly.
Larks: Form the main filling, cooking through and browning within the crust.
Pork sausage meat: Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the larks and filling.

The step that matters

Crimping the edges to seal. A tight seal keeps juices and the sausage filling inside while baking, so the pie stays moist rather than leaking and drying out.

“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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French Pie of Larks