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Partridge Pie

A savory pie with young partridges, veal, bacon, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,057 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Partridge Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot 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. Line the bottom of a pie dish with veal slices, seasoned with white pepper and salt.

  3. Place the partridges breast to breast on top of the veal.

  4. Pour sherry and water over the veal and partridges.

  5. Lay a slice of bacon over each partridge.

Bake

  1. Cover with pie crust, sticking the feet of the partridges into the top.

  2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes until the crust is golden.

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. Veal + white peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. White pepper + sherrytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together207 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Veal + sherrytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together572 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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, cooking gently inside the pie with the surrounding juices.
Veal
Forms the base layer and adds savoury meat flavour and moisture to the pie.
Bacon
Lays fat over the birds, adding moisture and savoury flavour as it renders.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic flavour to the liquid that bathes the meats.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven to form a golden top.

The step that matters

Covering with pie crust. The crust seals in steam and juices that cook the meat, and it needs to be tight enough to hold them. Its golden browning also depends on the oven being hot at the start of baking.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, sherry. 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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