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Pheasant Pie

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pheasant Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Bone the pheasants and lay them breast down on a clean cloth.

  2. Season the interiors with pepper, coarse sea salt, and chopped onions.

  3. Spread a layer of forcemeat about ½ inch thick over the birds.

  4. Place a thick layer of rich forcemeat with truffles at the bottom of the dish.

  5. Fill the interiors of the birds with oyster forcemeat.

  6. Roll the birds together and place them on the forcemeat foundation.

  7. Cover the birds with more forcemeat and add some savoury aspic jelly.

  8. Top with a pat of butter and a bay leaf before baking.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Pheasant + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Truffle + oystertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together304 recipes

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

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, pepper, truffle, oyster, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, pepper, truffle, oyster, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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