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Partridge Pie

A savory pie filled with partridges, ham, veal, herbs, mushrooms, and broth, topped with pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Partridge Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Divide the dressed partridges in half and rub with pepper, salt, and flour.

  3. Sprinkle parsley, thyme, and mushrooms over the partridges.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the ham and veal at the bottom.

  2. Add the partridges and pour broth or gravy over them.

  3. Cover with rich pie paste, leaving an opening in the center.

  4. Bake for about 1 hour.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Provide the main meat, which cooks through under the pastry.
Veal
Adds body and savoury richness as it cooks slowly in the dish.
Rich pie paste
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven as a crust.
Broth or gravy
Adds moisture so the filling stays juicy while it bakes.
Flour
Coats the partridges and helps thicken the juices into a light sauce.

The step that matters

Leaving an opening in the pastry. The opening lets steam escape while the pie bakes, so the crust does not puff up or make the filling soggy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, thyme, mushroom, veal, ham, butter):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, thyme, mushroom, veal, ham, butter. 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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