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Giblet Pie

A savory pie made with duck or goose giblets, steak, and gravy baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Giblet Pie

Why it works: Onion and pepper 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 ↓

Giblet Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Clean the giblets and place them in a stew pan with water, onion, pepper, salt, and savory herbs.

  2. Simmer for 1.5 hours.

  3. Remove the giblets, cut them into small pieces, and let them cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a shallow pudding dish with pie crust.

  2. Layer the steak pieces in the bottom, followed by a layer of giblets, seasoning with pepper, salt, and butter between layers.

  3. Add the strained gravy from the giblets.

  4. Cover with a top crust, leaving a round hole, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 1.5 hours.

  5. Optionally cover the crust with writing paper to prevent over-browning.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Provides meaty body and chewy texture that the filling holds together as it cooks.
Giblets
Simmered to build a rich, savory flavor and gravy for the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the layers as the filling cooks.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness to the stock that flavors the gravy.

The step that matters

Layering and the gravy. Cooling the giblets before layering and adding the strained gravy keeps the filling moist without a soggy crust. Too little liquid leaves the steak dry, while too much can soak the pastry from below.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter. 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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