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Fieldfare Pasties

A savory pastry filled with a forcemeat of veal, bacon, calf's liver, and fieldfare birds, served with rich gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fieldfare Pasties

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the birds

  1. Draw the birds.

  2. Remove any grit from the gizzards.

  3. In a stewpan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter.

  4. Steam the insides of the birds without browning them.

  5. Remove the insides.

  6. Lightly brown the birds in the same pan.

  7. Add more butter.

  8. Stir in 3-4 beaten eggs and 1 cup of milk.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Prepare a forcemeat by mixing 1.5 pounds of minced veal, 0.5 pound of minced bacon, and 0.5 pound of minced calf's liver.

  2. Season the forcemeat with pepper, coarse sea salt, and spice.

  3. Stir the forcemeat into the stewpan until thickened.

  4. Spread a layer of the thickened forcemeat in a dish.

  5. If available, cut boiled sweetbread into small pieces and mix with the forcemeat.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the birds and their insides on top of the forcemeat, seasoning with salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice.

  2. Cover with the remaining forcemeat.

  3. Top with pastry.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

  5. When done, pour a little rich gravy into the dish using a funnel.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Veal + livertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  5. Quail + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together512 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the milk and forcemeat, helping the mixture set and hold together when cooked.
Veal
Provides the main minced body of the forcemeat, giving a firm, tender texture.
Bacon
Adds fat to the forcemeat, keeping it moist and richly flavoured as it bakes.
Calf's liver
Adds a deep, savoury flavour and a softer texture to the forcemeat.
Milk
Adds moisture to the egg mixture, keeping the forcemeat tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Browning the birds lightly without cooking them through. The birds finish cooking in the oven, so over-browning them in the pan can leave them dry and tough once baked.

“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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