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French Game Pie

A savory pie of minced veal, pork, game, bacon, and truffle, baked in pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and pheasant work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 240 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

French Game Pie

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 forcemeat

  1. Finely chop the veal and pork or pass them through a mincing machine.

  2. Season the meat with aromatic spice and coarse sea salt, then add finely chopped truffle.

  3. Cut the game into neat joints.

Layer the pie

  1. Line a pie dish with the prepared forcemeat.

  2. Layer pieces of game on top, followed by slices of bacon and more forcemeat.

  3. Continue layering until the pie dish is full.

  4. Moisten with ½ cup of stock or water.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with a pastry crust, decorate, and brush with egg.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1½ hours.

  3. Serve hot or cold.

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. Pork + pheasanttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together240 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  3. Pork + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

  4. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Pheasant + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the lean, finely textured body of the forcemeat.
Pork
Adds fat and moisture so the forcemeat stays tender when baked.
Game
Provides the main flavour and the layered meat of the pie.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that bastes the lean meats as they cook.
Truffle
Contributes a strong earthy aroma to the seasoned forcemeat.
Pastry
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven as a protective crust.

The step that matters

Moistening with stock or water. Lean meats can dry out in a long bake, and a little liquid added before covering helps keep the filling moist and tender as it cooks.

“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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