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A Goose and Turkey Pie

A pie made with a goose stuffed inside a turkey, layered with farce, truffles, bacon, and veal, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and veal work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 815 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

A Goose and Turkey Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Season and rest the birds

  1. Season the insides of the geese and turkeys with mixed pepper, coarse sea salt, and fine spice.

  2. Let them sit for three days.

  3. Stuff one goose inside the other with good farce and 6 peeled truffles. Tie them into a proper shape.

  4. Stuff one turkey with farce and 3 pounds of braised Westphalia ham.

Braise

  1. Place the stuffed birds in a braising pan with 1 pint of stock to help them keep their shape.

  2. Simmer gently on a slow stove for 30 minutes.

  3. Cool in the pan.

Assemble and bake

  1. Once cooled, prepare the pie by laying slices of veal or rump steaks at the bottom.

  2. Add a layer of farce, then place the geese and turkeys inside, adding more farce around them.

  3. Layer 2 pounds of peeled raw truffles and cover with sheets of bacon.

  4. Cover the pie with pastry and decorate as desired.

  5. Let it rest overnight before baking.

  6. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 8 hours.

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. Truffle + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Truffle + hamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together516 recipes

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

  3. Turkey + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Turkey + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together303 recipes

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

  5. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Geese
Form the rich, dense main meat that is braised and then baked within the pie.
Turkeys
Provide a second layer of meat that adds bulk and mild flavour to the filling.
Farce
Fills the cavities and surrounds the birds, adding moisture and a tender texture as it cooks.
Truffles
Add a concentrated, earthy aroma to the stuffing and layered filling.
Braised westphalia ham
Adds salty, smoky meat flavour to the turkey stuffing.
Bacon
Lays fat over the filling, adding richness and moisture during the long bake.

The step that matters

Slow braise, then cool fully before assembling. Gentle simmering keeps the birds intact and partly cooked without toughening the meat. Cooling in the pan lets the birds firm up so they hold their shape when moved into the pie.

“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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