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Duck Pie

A pie made by stuffing a duck with a fowl and pickled calf's tongue, seasoned with salt, pepper, mace, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Duck Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the birds

  1. Bone the duck and fowl, then wash them.

  2. Season the duck and fowl with salt, pepper, mace, and allspice.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the fowl inside the duck, and add the pickled calf's tongue.

  2. Press the duck closed, tucking the leg skins inward for a smooth appearance.

  3. If desired, fill the space between the crust with a fine forcemeat.

  4. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) in a pie dish or raised crust.

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 + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Chicken + allspicetop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together410 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Duck
Forms the main meat and rich flavour of the pie filling.
Fowl (chicken)
Adds more meat and body to the filling placed inside the duck.
Pickled calf's tongue
Adds a distinctive savoury, tangy flavour and firm texture to the filling.
Ground mace
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour to the meat.
Ground allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour to the meat.

The step that matters

Press the duck closed. Tucking the leg skins inward and closing the bird firmly keeps the stuffing in place and helps the bird hold a compact shape while it bakes. Gaps let juices escape and can leave the filling dry or uneven.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, allspice):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, allspice. 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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