Name: Squab Pot-pie
Ingredients: 3 ounces salt pork, diced; 6 wild squabs, cut into pieces; 4 potatoes, cut into small squares; 12 small dough balls; Salt, to taste; White pepper, to taste; A dash of mace or nutmeg; Hot water, enough to cover the ingredients; Short pie crust, for covering

Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Squab Pot-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. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Dice the salt pork and cut the squabs into pieces at the joints, removing the skin.
Cut the potatoes into small squares.

Assemble and bake

In a deep baking dish, combine the pork, potatoes, and squabs.
Season with salt, white pepper, and a dash of mace or nutmeg.
Add enough hot water to cover the ingredients.
Cover with a short pie crust.
Bake for 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.

Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Pork + squabtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,695 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Pork + macetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,565 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Potato + macetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together288 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Squabs: Provide the main meat, whose fat and juices flavour the broth in the pot.
Salt pork: Adds fat and savoury depth that carries flavour through the dish.
Potatoes: Thicken the liquid slightly as they cook and add body to the filling.
Short pie crust: Seals the pot and forms a crust that browns in the oven.