Skip to main content
Main

Giblet Pie

A savory pie made with chicken or pigeon livers, squabs, herbs, and a buttery crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Giblet Pie

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Giblet Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the squabs

  1. Wash the squabs and place them in a saucepan with boiling water.

  2. Add salt and an onion clove to the squabs while boiling.

  3. Cover and boil the squabs slowly until tender.

  4. Drain and dry the squabs.

  5. Fill each squab with 1 teaspoon of butter, pepper, salt, minced parsley, and thyme. Insert a hard‑boiled egg into the cavity of each squab.

Make the giblet gravy

  1. Boil the livers in the water left from cooking the squabs until tender.

  2. Season the livers with celery, sweet herbs, and mushroom or walnut catsup.

  3. Strain the cooking liquid over the squabs.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 cup of milk or cream to the liquid.

  5. Sift in 2 tablespoons of unbrowned cracker crumbs, minced parsley, thyme, and a little salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the squabs in a large, round baking dish.

  2. Add a few slips of pastry on top of the squabs.

  3. Cover with a rich crust and bake.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs set in the cavity add body and a firm filling inside each squab.
Livers
Cooked and seasoned livers add a rich, savory flavor to the gravy.
Cracker crumbs
Unbrowned crumbs thicken the milk or cream liquid into a gravy.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and moisture to the liquid that forms the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the squabs and the gravy.

The step that matters

Strain the cooking liquid over the squabs. The liquid must be strained and combined with milk or cream and crumbs in the right proportion to form a smooth gravy; crumbs added too heavily or unevenly can leave it thick or lumpy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, celery, mushroom, squab, onion, butter, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, celery, mushroom, squab, onion, butter, pepper. 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.

More giblet pie recipes

Oyster 4Goose 3 See all 69 →

You might also like

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipes