Skip to main content
Main

Squirrel Pot Pie

A pot pie of squirrel and potatoes encased in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Squirrel Pot 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 the squirrel

  1. Skin, draw, remove the head and feet, and wash the squirrel well.

  2. Soak the squirrel in strong salt-water to remove blood and wild taste.

  3. Wash again and parboil in salt-water until tender.

Make the pastry and filling

  1. Peel and dice the potatoes, then boil them in weak salt-water until soft.

  2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

  3. Rub in the butter until well combined.

  4. Add the milk to form the pastry dough.

  5. Line a pudding dish with part of the pastry.

  6. Layer the potatoes and squirrel alternately until all ingredients are used.

  7. Season with salt, pepper, celery salt, parsley and add a walnut-sized piece of butter.

Bake

  1. Dust the top with flour and cover with the remaining pastry.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 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

Squirrel
Provides the meat that forms the main filling of the pie.
Potatoes
Add bulk and a soft, moist texture to the filling.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the pastry dough that encloses the filling.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the pastry rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the pastry and gives it richness.
Milk
Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together and bakes golden.

The step that matters

Soak the squirrel in strong salt-water. Soaking draws out blood and strong wild flavours from the meat. Rinsing afterwards and parboiling until tender ensures the meat is clean and soft before it is baked.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, flour, butter, milk, pepper, celery, parsley):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Lentilsfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, flour, butter, milk, pepper, celery, parsley. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipes