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Perigord Pie

A savory pie with partridges stuffed with forcemeat, truffles, and stock, baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Perigord Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Clean and bone the partridges, seasoning them well.

  2. Stuff the partridges with a rich forcemeat made from bread, dried herbs, parsley, chopped livers, and grated ham.

  3. Pare and chop the truffles.

  4. Line a dish with puff pastry.

  5. Bake the pastry until the crust is yellow.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill the dish with the stuffed partridges and chopped truffles, adding the stock.

  2. Top with a layer of forcemeat and criss-cross strips of pastry.

  3. Bake for 1½ hours at 350°F (175°C).

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. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

  3. Truffle + livertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  4. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  5. Truffle + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together531 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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, which cooks through slowly inside the pastry.
Truffles
Add a strong, earthy aroma that defines the dish.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, golden crust that holds the filling.
Forcemeat
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the meat tender as it bakes.
Stock
Adds moisture and savory depth to the filling during baking.
Grated ham
Adds salty, savory flavor and fat that enriches the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Bake the pastry until the crust is yellow. Partly baking the pastry before filling sets its structure and helps it stay crisp instead of going soggy from the moist filling and stock.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, bread, liver, ham):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, bread, liver, ham. 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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