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Partridge Pie a LA Francaise

A savory pie of partridges filled with veal, bacon, and herbs, topped with bacon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 a LA Francaise

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.

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Season the partridges well.

  2. In a stewpan, combine veal, fat bacon, butter, shallots, parsley, and thyme. Cook until tender.

  3. Strain and pound the meat until smooth.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare a pie crust and place the partridges inside.

  2. Spread the forcemeat over the partridges and top with thin slices of bacon.

  3. Cover the pie with a thick lid and seal it well to prevent gravy from leaking.

  4. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 3 hours, ensuring the fierce heat has subsided before placing it in the oven.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Form the main body of the pie and provide the core flavour of the dish.
Veal
Becomes a smooth forcemeat that adds body and moisture to the filling.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and savoury richness, keeping the forcemeat moist as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the forcemeat become smooth and tender.

The step that matters

Let the oven cool before baking. Putting the pie into a fierce oven can toughen the meat and dry the forcemeat. Waiting until the heat has subsided allows gentler, more even cooking of the partridges and filling.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, parsley, thyme):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Parsnipfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, parsley, thyme. 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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