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Pie of Partridges

A savory pie filled with partridges stuffed with liver, parsley, breadcrumbs, and nutmeg, wrapped in bacon and baked with beef and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pie of Partridges

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the birds

  1. Pluck the partridges.

  2. Draw the partridges.

  3. Singe the partridges.

  4. Halve them lengthwise.

  5. Mince the livers.

  6. Mix the livers with parsley, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, and nutmeg, then stuff the mixture into the birds.

  7. Place a piece of butter in each half.

Assemble the pie

  1. Butter a shallow pie dish.

  2. Line the edges of the pie dish with pastry.

  3. Lay a slice of lean beef at the bottom.

  4. Season the beef with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  5. Wrap the birds in bacon.

  6. Pack the wrapped birds breast down on the beef.

  7. Pour the stock over the birds.

  8. Add a layer of bacon on top.

  9. Cover the birds with pastry.

  10. Decorate the pastry.

  11. Brush the pastry with beaten egg.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + walnuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Parsley + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together865 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 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

Partridges
Provide the main meat, which cooks through and becomes tender inside the pie.
Bacon
Adds fat that bastes the birds and keeps the lean meat moist as it bakes.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the liver mixture's moisture so the stuffing holds together rather than running out.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the birds stay juicy and brown.
Pastry
Encloses the filling, trapping steam and forming a sealed, crisp crust.
Egg
Brushed on the pastry, it promotes an even golden browning.

The step that matters

Packing the wrapped birds breast down on the beef. Breast meat is lean and dries out quickly, so placing it against the base of the dish, under the fat and stock, helps protect it during the long bake.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, pepper, nutmeg, butter, beef, egg):

  1. Walnutthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Chickpeafits less well
  4. Almondfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, pepper, nutmeg, butter, beef, egg. 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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