Name: Venison Pie
Ingredients: breast and neck of venison, cut into small pieces; coarse sea salt; black pepper; ground cloves; venison gravy or gravy made from flour, butter, hot water, salt, and pepper; pie crust

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Venison Pie

Ingredients

breast and neck of venison, cut into small pieces
coarse sea salt
black pepper
ground cloves
venison gravy or gravy made from flour, butter, hot water, salt, and pepper
pie crust

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 filling

Season the venison pieces with salt, pepper, and ground cloves.
Place the seasoned venison in a pie dish as thick as possible.
Fill the dish with venison gravy or a gravy made from flour, butter, hot water, salt, and pepper.

Bake

Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.
Add a pie crust on top and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

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.

Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Venison + peppertop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together955 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Venison + clovetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together185 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Breast and neck of venison: Provides the meat that becomes tender and rich during the long, gentle bake.
Pie crust: Forms a sealed top that traps steam and browns in the oven.
Venison gravy: Adds moisture and body so the filling does not dry out while baking.