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English Game Pie

A savory pie made with venison neck, hare, forcemeat, short-crust pastry, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

English Game Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Trim the venison neck and rub it with mace, nutmeg, cayenne, and salt.

  2. Boil the trimmings of the venison with the inferior joints of the hare to make gravy.

  3. Fill the boned hare back and thighs with forcemeat.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a dish with short-crust pastry.

  2. Add the venison and hare.

  3. Fill every space with forcemeat.

  4. Add a little gravy.

  5. Cover with pastry.

  6. Ornament the top.

  7. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 2.5 hours.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Venison + livertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Shallot + livertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together268 recipes

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

  5. Mace + shallottop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison neck
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and rich during the long baking.
Hare
Adds a gamey, deeply flavoured meat that pairs with the venison in the filling.
Forcemeat
Fills the gaps around the meat, adding moisture and a dense, savoury texture.
Short-crust pastry
Forms a sturdy, crisp case that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
Gravy from boiled trimmings
Adds moisture and savoury depth so the filling does not dry out as it bakes.

The step that matters

Fill every space with forcemeat. Empty gaps let the meat shift and dry out, and air pockets can make the pie collapse or hold uneven moisture. Packing the forcemeat firmly around the meat keeps the filling moist and well set.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, nutmeg, shallot, liver):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, nutmeg, shallot, liver. 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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