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Yorkshire Pie

A large pie filled with goose, turkey, ducks, hare, and partridges or woodcocks, baked in a thick raised crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,592 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Yorkshire Pie

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 birds and hare

  1. Bone the goose, turkey, and ducks by splitting them open at the backs.

  2. Boil the old hare with plenty of spices until the bones fall freely from the flesh.

  3. Make a rich forcemeat with the hare and add the forcemeat to the birds.

Assemble the pie

  1. Place the birds inside a thick raised crust.

  2. Fill the sides of the crust with partridges or woodcocks.

  3. Cover the pie completely.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for 4 hours at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Pour in the hare gravy and melted butter, then seal the hole.

  3. Let the pie rest for at least a week 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. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Thick raised pie crust
Holds its shape and encloses the filling through a long, slow bake.
Ducks
Fatty meat that adds richness and flavour to the filling.
Turkey
Lean meat that gives the filling bulk and body.
Hare gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth to the filled pie.
Fresh butter
Adds fat that enriches the gravy and gives a smooth mouthfeel.
Partridges or woodcocks
Small game that adds a concentrated, gamey flavour to the pie.

The step that matters

Boil the hare until the bones fall free. Long, gentle simmering breaks down connective tissue, so the meat becomes tender and separates cleanly for the forcemeat, while releasing gelatin that enriches the gravy. Stopping early leaves tough meat and a thin, less flavourful gravy.

“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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