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Gravy for Game Pie

A rich gravy made from game carcasses, veal and bacon trimmings, simmered with onion, carrot, celery, herbs, Madeira, stock, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Gravy for Game Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Break the carcasses of the birds and place them in a stewpan with the veal and bacon trimmings.

  2. Add the onion, carrot, peppercorns, celery, herbs, water, and Madeira.

  3. Set over moderate heat and shake the pan several times.

  4. Reduce the liquid by half without burning it.

  5. Add the light stock and bring to a boil.

  6. Skim the surface.

  7. Simmer for 2 hours.

Strain and set

  1. Strain the gravy.

  2. Rinse and wipe the stewpan.

  3. Return the liquid to the stewpan.

  4. Dissolve the gelatine in the gravy.

  5. Pass the gravy through a tamis.

  6. Pour the gravy into a basin and let it cool.

  7. Pour the gravy (just tepid) into the pie through a funnel.

  8. Set aside to firm up.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Carcasses of birds
Provide the main meaty flavour and body for the gravy.
Veal trimmings
Add savoury depth and body to the stock during long simmering.
Bacon trimmings
Contribute smoky, salty fat that enriches the flavour of the stock.
Gelatine
Sets the cooled gravy to a firm, jelly-like texture inside the pie.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it reduces into the stock.

The step that matters

Pour the gravy while just tepid. If the gravy is too hot it can melt the pie's fat and set poorly, while if it is too cold it thickens before filling and will not pour evenly through the funnel. Gelatine needs to be warm enough to stay liquid yet cool enough to set firm once chilled.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, carrot, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, carrot, celery. 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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