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Dessert

Herb Pie for Lent

A savory pie made with boiled lettuce, leeks, spinach, beets, parsley, groats, onions, butter, apples, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 427 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Herb Pie for Lent

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 herbs

  1. Boil the lettuce, leeks, spinach, beets, and parsley until tender.

  2. Chop the boiled herbs finely.

Make the filling

  1. In a frying pan, combine the chopped herbs, boiled groats, onions, butter, and sliced apples.

  2. Add a good amount of coarse sea salt and stew for a few minutes over medium heat.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill your dish or pie crust with the mixture.

  2. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C) and serve.

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. Lettuce + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together427 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Lettuce + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Leek + spinachtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together42 recipes

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

  4. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Leek + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beets
Adds bulk and colour to the herb filling.
Groats
Provide body and a soft, starchy texture to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the filling.
Apples
Add gentle sweetness and moisture as they soften during cooking.
Onions
Contribute savoury sweetness and aroma when cooked down.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, leek, spinach, parsley, onion, butter):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, leek, spinach, parsley, onion, butter. 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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