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Method for Forcemeat

A pheasant pie filled with forcemeat of veal, bacon, and truffles, baked with pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and truffle work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 815 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Method for Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mix the minced veal, bacon, truffles, and beaten eggs together until well combined.

  2. Stuff the boned pheasant with half of the forcemeat.

  3. Roast the stuffed pheasant halfway, basting with butter.

Assemble the pie

  1. Prepare the pastry as directed for 'Raised Pork Pie.'

  2. Layer slices of bacon at the bottom of the crust.

  3. Place the pheasant on top.

  4. Add the remaining forcemeat.

  5. Top with more bacon slices.

  6. Cover with the pastry lid.

  7. Decorate.

  8. Finish as for 'Pork Pie.'

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for about 3 hours.

  2. Use the bones to make gravy to fill the pie afterwards.

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. Veal + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Truffle + pheasanttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Veal + pheasanttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together132 recipes

    Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the bulk and mild, tender body of the forcemeat stuffing.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that keeps the lean meats moist as they cook.
Eggs
Bind the minced meat and truffles so the forcemeat holds together when sliced.
Truffles
Contribute a strong, earthy aroma that perfumes the forcemeat and the pie.

The step that matters

Roast the stuffed pheasant halfway, basting with butter. Lean game birds dry out easily. Basting with butter adds fat that carries heat into the surface and helps it brown and stay moist during the long bake that follows.

“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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