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A Pasty of Grouse

A pastry filled with veal, ham, and stewed grouse in wine and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

A Pasty of Grouse

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the farce

  1. Chop the veal and ham finely to make a farce.

  2. Mix the farce with breadcrumbs, melted butter, red pepper, and raw eggs.

Cook the grouse

  1. Cut the grouse into pieces and brown them lightly in butter.

  2. Stew the grouse in bouillon, red wine, onions, bay leaves, lemon, mace, and truffles or mushrooms for 30 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pasty form with puff pastry, about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Layer the farce and grouse alternately in the form, pouring a little sauce on each layer.

  3. Cover with a thick layer of puff pastry and bake at 300°F (150°C).

  4. If the pasty seems dry, add more wine or hot bouillon through a hole in the lid.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main meaty body of the farce, giving it a firm, sliceable texture.
Raw eggs
Bind the farce so it holds together when baked and sliced.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and help the farce hold its shape and texture.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture to the farce and helps the grouse brown.
Grouse
Provides the main game flavour and tender meat for the filling.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, buttery crust that encloses the filling as it bakes.

The step that matters

Adding liquid when the pasty seems dry. Pastry enclosed around meat can dry out in the oven. Adding hot liquid through the lid replaces moisture lost during baking, but cold liquid would cool the filling and slow cooking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, butter, pepper, egg, red wine, lemon):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, butter, pepper, egg, red wine, lemon. 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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