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Partridge Pie

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

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

Partridge Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Season the partridges with pepper, coarse sea salt, chopped parsley, thyme, and mushrooms.

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

  3. Add the seasoned partridges and a little good broth on top.

Bake

  1. Cover the dish with puff pastry, sealing the edges and placing some on top.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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.

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

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

  4. Thyme + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Form the main filling and provide the meat that cooks within the pie.
Veal steak
Adds meaty body and richness to the base of the pie.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour to the base layer.
Puff pastry
Forms a crisp, flaky crust that browns in the oven and seals the filling.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the seasoned filling.

The step that matters

Sealing the pastry edges. If the puff pastry edges are not sealed well, steam escapes during baking and the crust may not rise evenly or may leave the filling dry. A tight seal keeps the juices in and lets the pastry puff and brown properly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Rosemaryfits less well

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