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Partridge Pie

A savory pie with partridges, veal, ham, and herbs baked in rich pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

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

  1. Rub the partridge halves with pepper, salt, and flour. Sprinkle with parsley and thyme.

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 at 400°F (200°C) for about one 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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 and flavor of the pie.
Veal
Adds body and savory richness as it cooks slowly beneath the birds.
Flour
Coats the partridge halves, helping the seasoning cling and lightly thickening the juices.
Broth or gravy
Supplies moisture so the meat stays tender and the pie is not dry.
Rich pie paste
Forms the enclosing crust that holds in heat and juices while the pie bakes.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Sagefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, parsley, 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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