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Giblet Pie

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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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. Pick and draw the squabs, wash them, and place them in a saucepan with boiling water.

  2. Cover and boil the squabs slowly until tender, then add salt and an onion clove.

  3. Drain and dry the squabs, then fill each with 1 teaspoon of butter, pepper, salt, minced parsley, and thyme.

  4. Insert a hard-boiled egg into the cavity of each squab.

Make the liver filling

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

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

Assemble and bake

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

  2. Strain the cooking liquid over the squabs, add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 teacup of milk or cream.

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

  4. Add a few slips of pastry, 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

Squabs
Form the main body of the pie, cooked until tender and then baked in the crust.
Livers of chicken or pigeon
Provide a rich, savoury filling flavour when boiled and seasoned.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add substance and a firm centre inside each squab.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness to the cooking liquid in the dish.
Cracker crumbs
Thicken the liquid and help bind the filling as it bakes.

The step that matters

Boil the squabs slowly until tender. Slow simmering cooks the birds evenly and keeps the meat moist; a hard boil toughens the protein and can leave it dry or uneven.

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.

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