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Game Pie

A savory pie made with game birds, sausage, and spices, baked in a buttered crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Game Pie

Ingredients

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.

Make the pastry

  1. Butter a raised pie mold inside.

  2. In a bowl, mix the butter and flour, rubbing the butter into the flour.

  3. Beat the egg and mix half with enough water to moisten the paste.

  4. Knead into a firm paste, reserving a piece the size of an apple for the lid.

  5. Roll the main piece into an oblong shape to line the mold, pressing it in neatly.

  6. Roll out the reserved piece for the lid.

Prepare the filling

  1. Prepare the birds by washing, splitting them lengthwise, and removing bones.

  2. Wash and chop the hearts and livers.

  3. Mix the sausage meat, bread crumbs, chopped livers, and hearts together.

  4. Add pepper and salt, mixing thoroughly.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer a little of the mixture in the bottom of the mold, followed by half a bird, seasoning, sausage meat, truffles, and tongue pieces.

  2. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, filling gaps with sausage meat.

  3. Wet the edges with water, place the lid on, and make an opening in the top.

  4. Decorate the top, brush with egg, and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 1.5 hours.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  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 structure of the pastry that holds the filling together.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to make the pastry tender and flaky.
Egg
Moistens the pastry paste and gives the lid a glossy, browned finish.
Sausage meat
Adds fat and moisture to the filling so it stays juicy as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorbs liquid in the sausage mixture, helping it hold together and stay moist.

The step that matters

Filling the layers and sealing the lid. Gaps left in the filling let air pockets form, and a poorly sealed lid lets juices escape. Packing the layers firmly and sealing the edges well keeps the pie moist and holds its shape during baking.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, butter, egg, meat, bread, truffle):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, butter, egg, meat, bread, truffle. 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

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