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Game Pie

A savory pie filled with game birds, forcemeat, veal, bacon, and a reduced stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓

Game Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the pie

  1. Bone the game and stuff with forcemeat.

  2. Prepare the crust and place a few slices of veal and a thick layer of forcemeat on the bottom.

  3. Lay in the game and cover with thin slices of bacon.

Make the stock

  1. Stew the giblets with ham, bones, shallots, mace, thyme, and parsley in 2 quarts of stock until reduced to 1 pint.

  2. Strain and pour the stock into the pie when cold.

Bake and rest

  1. Put on the upper crust and bake at 400°F (200°C) for four hours.

  2. Let it stand for 24 hours before cutting.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Truffle + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Truffle + hamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Forcemeat
Forms a thick, moist layer that fills the pie and keeps the game juicy.
Bacon
Lays over the game, adding fat that bastes the meat and flavour during baking.
Stock
Reduced with the giblets and poured in cold, it sets to a jelly that adds moisture.
Veal
Lines the bottom of the crust, adding meaty body and moisture to the pie.
Truffle
Adds a concentrated earthy aroma to the game.

The step that matters

Pouring in the stock when cold. Stock must be strained and fully cold so that it gels into a jelly rather than running out. Its gelatin then keeps the meat moist as the pie is sliced and served.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, veal, ham, shallot, thyme, parsley):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, veal, ham, shallot, thyme, parsley. 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 game pie recipes

English 13Christmas 6Forcemeat 4Raised 4Venison and Hare 4French 3 See all 39 →

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