Skip to main content
Main

Game Pie

A savory pie filled with veal, pork, assorted game, ham, liver farce, mushrooms, truffles, pistachios, parsley, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Game Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady 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 paste with the flour, mixing in the hot butter and milk, then add the egg yolk and salt; knead well.

  2. Line a raised pie tin with the paste, about ¼ inch thick.

Fill and cover

  1. Mince the veal and pork together; season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg.

  2. Place the mince around the inside of the paste, filling the center with fillets of game and strips of ham.

  3. Stuff the larks and quails with liver farce or foie‑gras, and place them in the center.

  4. Sprinkle the chopped mushrooms, truffles, pistachios, and parsley over the filling, adding more seasoning.

  5. Cover with some of the mince, wet the edges of the paste, and place the top cover on, sealing it well.

  6. Trim the edges and use the trimmings to create an ornament for the top.

Bake and finish

  1. Tie a band of buttered paper around the mold about 3 inches above the top, and bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C) for 3 hours.

  2. When the pie is nearly cold, remove the top ornament, pour in about ½ pint of good stock, and replace the ornament.

  3. Once completely cool, serve the pie garnished with chopped aspic.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 paste that structures the crust and holds the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the paste and fat to the crust.
Veal
Forms the mince that binds and moistens the filling as it cooks.
Fresh pork
Adds fat and moisture to the mince, keeping the filling juicy.
Game
Provides the main meaty flavor and texture of the filling.
Truffles
Contribute a strong, earthy aroma to the filling.
Liver farce or foie-gras
Adds richness and buttery moisture to the stuffed birds.

The step that matters

Sealing the top cover. A tight seal keeps juices in during the long bake; gaps let moisture escape and leave the filling dry.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, butter, egg, pepper, veal, pork):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, butter, egg, pepper, veal, pork. 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.

More game pie recipes

English 13Christmas 6Forcemeat 4Raised 4Venison and Hare 4French 3 See all 39 →

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes