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Raised Pies

Raised pies are pastry cases filled with boneless meat, poultry, or game.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and oyster are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,103 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Raised Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Dissolve a few ounces of lard or butter in boiling water, then mix with flour to a smooth, firm paste.

Shape the crust

  1. Mold a lump of paste into a sugar-loaf shape, set upright, flatten sides with palms, smooth, and squeeze the middle to half the height.

  2. Hollow the inside by pressing with fingers, keeping equal thickness throughout.

  3. Fill the hollow, roll out a cover, egg the edges, press them together, make a hole in the centre, lay a roll of paste around it, and encircle with a wreath of leaves or other ornament.

Bake

  1. Glaze the crust with beaten yolk, bake 2–3 hours if small, 4–5 hours if large, adjusting time for contents.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

671Calories
29 gProtein
15 gFat
102 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oyster + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,886 recipes

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

  4. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes
  5. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Lard or butter (in the method)
Adds fat that keeps the paste short and tender as it sets.
Flour
Forms the structure of the paste that holds the raised shape.
Egg
Seals the edges of the lid and, as a yolk glaze, browns the crust.

The step that matters

Hollowing the inside of the crust. Keeping equal wall thickness matters because thin spots can over-brown or collapse, while thick spots stay doughy and bake unevenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, oyster, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, oyster, cream. 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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