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Raised Pie, of Poultry or Game

A raised pie filled with fowl, veal, ham, and forcemeat, encased in a short crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Raised Pie, of Poultry or Game

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 the crust

  1. Make a stiff short crust with flour, butter, water, and egg yolks; work it smoothly.

  2. Butter a raised pie mold and line it with the crust.

Prepare the filling

  1. Bone the fowl, season the inside with mace, allspice, pepper, and salt.

  2. Spread a layer of forcemeat, then veal, then ham, and another layer of forcemeat on the fowl.

  3. Roll the fowl over to meet the skin at the back.

  4. Line the pie with forcemeat, place the fowl inside, and fill cavities with veal, ham and forcemeat.

Close and bake

  1. Wet the edges, cover with crust, pinch edges together, and decorate.

  2. Brush with beaten egg yolk and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 4 hours.

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. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + pheasanttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together225 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

Flour
Forms the structure of the crust that holds the pie's shape.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crust short and tender.
Egg yolks
Enriches the crust and helps it bind and brown.
Fowl or pheasant
Forms the central meat of the pie, cooked through during baking.
Forcemeat
Binds and moistens the filling, keeping the meats tender and juicy.

The step that matters

Roll the fowl over to meet the skin at the back. Boned meat wrapped around its filling can loosen and open during baking if not closed firmly. Keeping the skin sealed helps the bird hold a compact shape and stay moist.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, egg, pheasant, veal, ham, nutmeg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, egg, pheasant, veal, ham, nutmeg. 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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