Skip to main content
Main

Parsley Pie

A savory pie made with fowl or veal bones, parsley, milk, broth, cream, butter, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Parsley 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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Season the fowl or veal bones and place them in a dish.

Combine and bake

  1. Scald the picked parsley in milk, then season it.

  2. Add the parsley to the fowl or meat along with the broth or gravy.

  3. Bake until cooked through.

Finish and bake

  1. Pour in the scalded cream mixed with butter and flour, and stir to combine with the gravy.

  2. Bake again until the top is golden.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Parsley + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together865 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Fowl or veal bones
Provides the main meaty flavour and body for the filling.
Picked parsley
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma and flavour to the pie.
Broth or gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth to the filling.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture.
Butter
Contributes fat for richness and mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the filling holds together.

The step that matters

Stirring the cream, butter and flour into the gravy. Flour thickens only when it is evenly dispersed in the liquid. If it is not stirred in thoroughly, it can clump, leaving pockets of raw flour taste and an uneven, lumpy texture in the finished filling.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Pistachiofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, parsley, milk, cream, butter, flour, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Veal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes