Name: Game Pie for Christmas
Ingredients: thick pie crust; slices of fat bacon; forcemeat (made from scalded bird livers, fat bacon, lean ham, truffles, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, savory herbs, parsley, and lemon rind); joints of game birds (pheasants, partridges, woodcocks, snipe, grouse, etc.); finely chopped mushrooms; butter; beaten egg; strong gravy (optional for serving hot); roughed aspic jelly (optional for serving cold)

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Game Pie for Christmas

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

thick pie crust
slices of fat bacon
forcemeat (made from scalded bird livers, fat bacon, lean ham, truffles, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, savory herbs, parsley, and lemon rind)
joints of game birds (pheasants, partridges, woodcocks, snipe, grouse, etc.)
finely chopped mushrooms
butter
beaten egg
strong gravy (optional for serving hot)
roughed aspic jelly (optional for serving cold)

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make a thick pie crust and line the bottom with slices of fat bacon.

Fill the pie

Spread a layer of forcemeat over the bacon.
Add joints of the game birds, larding the breasts, and sprinkle with chopped mushrooms.
Repeat layering until the pie is full, seasoning lightly and adding small lumps of butter.

Bake and serve

Cover with the pie lid, decorate with pastry leaves, and brush with beaten egg.
Bake in the oven until golden.
If serving hot, pour strong gravy over the pie after baking; if cold, remove the bacon and top with aspic jelly.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ham + truffletop 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

Game birds: Provide the main meat, whose flavour defines the pie.
Forcemeat: Adds a moist, richly seasoned layer that keeps the filling juicy as it cooks.
Fat bacon: Lines the crust and bastes the filling with fat, adding savoury flavour and moisture.
Butter: Adds fat and richness that melts through the filling as it bakes.
Beaten egg: Brushed on the crust to promote even browning and a glossy golden finish.
Mushrooms: Add earthy savouriness and moisture to the layers of filling.

The step that matters

Brush with beaten egg and bake until golden. Egg wash browns the pastry through proteins and sugars reacting in the heat. Under-baking leaves a pale, soft crust that can be soggy, while the filling needs enough time to cook through.

“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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Game Pie for Christmas