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Grouse Pie

A savory pie containing rump steak and grouse, seasoned with salt, pepper, cayenne, and baked with broth, lemon juice, and claret.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Grouse 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.

Assemble

  1. Line the edges of a pie dish with pie crust.

  2. Place the pieces of rump steak at the bottom of the dish.

  3. Lay the grouse on top of the steak.

  4. Season the grouse with coarse sea salt, cayenne, and black pepper.

  5. Pour the broth over the grouse.

  6. Cover with pie crust.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about an hour.

  2. If serving hot, pour in boiling gravy mixed with lemon juice and claret before serving.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Browns and softens slowly in the oven, adding meaty flavor and tenderness to the filling.
Grouse
Forms the main meat of the filling, providing its characteristic game flavor and texture.
Flavorful broth
Adds moisture and body, keeping the filling juicy as it bakes.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavor to the hot gravy poured in before serving.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the gravy and balances the rich meat.

The step that matters

Covering and baking the pie. The crust must seal fully around the filling so steam stays inside, keeping the meat moist; a gap lets juices escape and dries the grouse during the hour-long bake.

“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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