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Game, Perigord Pie

A pie filled with a forcemeat of partridge and calf livers, bacon, ham, shallots, spices, truffles, and topped with bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,898 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Game, Perigord Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

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 the pie

  1. Line the crust of a raised pie with fat bacon.

  2. Make a forcemeat by mincing and pounding the livers, bacon, ham, shallots, spices, truffles, pepper, and salt.

  3. Stuff the partridges with the forcemeat and some truffles, placing them back down in the crust.

  4. Fill the vacant spaces with forcemeat and bacon, then place a slice of bacon on top.

Bake and finish

  1. Cover with pastry and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about four hours.

  2. When nearly baked, fill the pie with gravy made from stewing the trimmings with a little isinglass.

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. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  2. Ham + truffletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together516 recipes

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

  3. Liver + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  4. Shallot + truffletop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together352 recipes

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

  5. Liver + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together298 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridge liver
Gives the forcemeat a rich, savoury flavour and a soft, tender body.
Calf's liver
Adds moisture and a smooth texture to the forcemeat as it cooks.
Fat bacon
Melts during baking, adding fat that keeps the filling moist and carries flavour.
Lean ham
Adds a savoury, meaty flavour and some firmer texture to the forcemeat.
Truffles
Provide a strong, earthy aroma that defines the flavour of the pie.
Isinglass (in the method)
Sets the gravy into a jelly as the pie cools, adding body to the filling.

The step that matters

Adding the gravy when nearly baked. Adding the gravy too early lets it boil away or make the crust soggy; adding it near the end keeps it in the pie and lets the isinglass set it as the pie cools.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, ham, truffle, pepper):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, ham, truffle, pepper. 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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