Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Game 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cut the beef or mutton into collops and wrap each with a strip of bacon.
Use scraps from trimming the meat and any leftover game to make gravy with vegetables and flavoring ingredients.
Add a glass of white wine to the gravy for flavor.
Prepare a forcemeat using the livers of the game birds.
Assemble and bake
Spread a layer of forcemeat in the bottom and up the sides of a pie dish.
Layer the collops and other meats in the dish, adding forcemeat between layers.
Cover the pie and bake until cooked through.
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.
-
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,606 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Beef + quailtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together48 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Beef + meattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,533 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef or mutton
- Provides the main meat, whose tenderness sets the texture of the pie.
- Bacon
- Its fat bastes the meat as it cooks, adding moisture and savory flavor.
- Gravy meat
- Its scraps and juices build a rich, savory gravy that keeps the filling moist.
- Game bird livers
- Make a rich, dense forcemeat that adds depth and flavor to the pie.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma to the gravy, balancing the richness of the meat.
The step that matters
Cooking the forcemeat and layers through. Forcemeat and meat must cook fully through under a covered crust; a dense pie can stay cool at the center while the outside overcooks, so check that the centre is cooked before serving.
Swap the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, onion, white wine, liver, quail):
- Potatofits better
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits about as well
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, onion, white wine, liver, quail. 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.
More game pie recipes
You might also like
Roast Beef211 recipes
Beef Loaf175 recipes
Carrot Soup134 recipes
Corned Beef87 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.