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Cold Raised Pies

A large pie filled with game, poultry, ham, bacon, truffles, and force‑meat, baked slowly and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,209 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Cold Raised Pies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil and trim the York ham and tongues.

  2. Season and garnish the inside of the game and poultry with fat bacon and truffles.

  3. Sew up the game and poultry to prevent the force-meat from escaping.

Bake the birds

  1. Line two braising pans with layers of fat bacon.

  2. Arrange the birds neatly in the pans and cover with bacon and buttered paper.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 4 hours.

  4. Allow to cool after baking.

Assemble the pie

  1. Prepare aspic jelly with the carcasses, calves' feet, and vegetables, then clarify it.

  2. Make hot-water paste and line the inside of the pie with fat bacon and force-meat.

  3. Layer the goose at the bottom, surround with small birds, then add turkey and pheasants with ham slices.

  4. Place woodcocks and widgeons on top, fill cavities with force-meat and truffles, and cover with bacon.

  5. Brush the surface with melted butter and cover the pie.

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. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Ham + truffletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together516 recipes

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

  3. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

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

  4. Truffle + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together527 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hot-water paste
Forms a sturdy, sealed shell that holds the filling and keeps it moist.
Fat bacon
Lines the pans and pie, adding fat that keeps the birds moist as they bake.
Force-meat of fat livers
Adds richness and moisture, filling the cavities and packing around the birds.
Calves' feet
Their natural gelatin helps the aspic jelly set firm when chilled.
French truffles
Contributes a strong, earthy aroma to the stuffing and birds.
Plain melted butter
Brushed on the surface, it adds richness and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Allow to cool after baking. Cooling lets the fats and juices settle and firm slightly, so the birds can be handled and packed into the paste without collapsing or leaking.

“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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