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Partridge Pie

A savory pie containing partridges stewed in gravy, veal cutlet base, forcemeat, eggs, and mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Partridge Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the birds

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Lay the veal cutlet in the bottom of a deep dish.

  3. Fill the partridges with forcemeat made of minced veal, bread crumbs, and salt.

  4. Stew the partridges in good gravy for a short time.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the birds in the dish with their breasts downwards.

  2. Pour the stewing gravy over the birds.

  3. Fill the dish with forcemeat balls and chopped hard boiled eggs.

  4. Add mushroom ketchup just before placing the crust on top.

  5. Bake in the oven until golden brown.

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 + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal cutlet
Forms a meaty base layer that cooks gently in the dish and flavors the pie.
Partridges
Provide the main meat, which is partly cooked by stewing before baking.
Bread crumbs
Bind the forcemeat so it holds together rather than crumbling when cooked.
Hard boiled eggs
Add firm, chopped texture and richness to the filling.
Good gravy
Supplies moisture and savory flavor that keeps the birds tender during baking.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven, adding a crisp golden top.

The step that matters

Stewing the partridges briefly. Stewing only a short time partly cooks the birds without drying them. Overcooking now leaves them tough, since they cook again in the oven.

“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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