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Game Pie

A savory pie made from boned game, vegetables, and stock, finished with aspic jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Game Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Stew the bones of the game with carrots, onions, celery, and sweet herbs in water until the goodness is extracted.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Flavor the strained stock with salt and sugar.

  4. Let it cool.

  5. Remove grease and fat.

  6. Color the stock with brown coloring.

  7. Clarify the colored stock.

  8. Reduce the clarified stock to nearly half‑glaze.

Assemble the pie

  1. Fillet the boned game into nice‑sized pieces.

  2. Fry the fillets in a little butter until set.

  3. Line a pie dish with rows of Farci meat and game.

  4. Sprinkle pepper, salt, and chopped parsley between layers.

  5. Fill the dish to within an inch of the top.

  6. Pour the remaining stock over it.

Cook and set

  1. Place the dish in a stewpan of warm water.

  2. Simmer for 2 to 3 hours, depending on the size of the pie.

  3. After removing the dish from the stewpan, press the top even with a dish or spoon.

  4. When cold, cover the top with aspic jelly.

  5. Add more aspic jelly each day.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Boned game
Provides the main meat, which sets firmly when fried and cooled in the pie.
Farci meat (no. 80)
Forms the layered meat filling that gives the pie its body and structure.
Butter
Fries the game fillets, adding richness and browning to their surface.
Aspic jelly
Sets on top of the cold pie, adding moisture and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Clarify the colored stock. Clarifying removes cloudiness and fine particles so the stock sets clear and glossy as aspic. Skipping or rushing it leaves a murky jelly that does not set evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, carrot, celery, sugar, butter, pepper, parsley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, celery, sugar, butter, pepper, parsley. 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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