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Leicester Pie

A savory pork pie with a lard and flour crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Leicester Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the pork into pieces 2 inches long and 1.5 inches wide.

  2. Season the pork with pepper, coarse sea salt, and powdered sage.

Make the crust

  1. Mix 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt with 1 pound of flour.

  2. Stir in 4 ounces of lard dissolved in ½ pint of hot water.

  3. Roll out the dough.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a greased tin mold with part of the dough.

  2. Place the seasoned pork pieces in the mold.

  3. Cover with the remaining dough, sealing the edges securely.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour and 45 minutes.

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 + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pork + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork
Forms the savory filling, providing meat texture and rich flavor as it cooks.
Flour
Builds the dough structure that holds the filling and forms the crust.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crust and gives it a flaky, short texture.
Powdered sage
Contributes an earthy, aromatic flavor to the seasoned pork filling.

The step that matters

Sealing the top crust. If the edges are not sealed securely, juices can leak out during baking and the filling may dry out. A tight seal keeps moisture inside the pie while the pork cooks through.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Sagethe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, flour. 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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