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Quail Pies

Quail pies are baked quails topped with oyster and mushroom gravy, served in stone china dishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Quail Pies

serves 12 individual dishes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the quail

  1. Steam the cleaned quails in a double boiler for 25 minutes over brisk heat.

Make the gravy

  1. In a saucepan, combine the reserved mushroom liquid, oyster liquor, cream, browned flour, and butter.

  2. Cook the mixture until thickened.

  3. Add bacon, celery, salt, and cayenne to the sauce.

  4. Boil for 15 minutes.

  5. Strain the sauce.

  6. Stir in the beaten egg.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line 12 individual stone China dishes with short pie crust.

  2. Place a quail in each dish, adding a slice of lemon, a sprig of parsley, 3 mushrooms, and 2 oysters.

  3. Pour the gravy over the quails and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10-15 minutes.

  4. Serve hot in the baking dishes, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Mushroom + celerytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,006 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Quails
Provide the main meat, which is steamed until tender before baking.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the quail and holds its shape in the pie.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the gravy, carrying flavour and smoothing its texture.
Egg
Enriches and thickens the gravy when stirred in after straining.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness, giving the gravy a smoother, creamier body.
Canned mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the gravy, using their reserved liquid.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten egg. Egg thickens when heated, so it should be added after the sauce is strained and off the boil, or it may scramble and turn grainy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, mushroom, oyster, cream, flour, butter, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, mushroom, oyster, cream, flour, butter, 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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