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Grouse Pie

A layered pie of grouse, steak, bacon, eggs, and stock, topped with puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Grouse Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the grouse into neat joints and remove the lower parts of the back to avoid bitterness.

  2. Slice the steak into small thin pieces.

  3. Slice the bacon into narrow strips.

  4. Slice the eggs into sections.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line the bottom of a pie dish with slices of steak.

  2. Cover with a layer of grouse.

  3. Add bacon strips and egg slices.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Repeat layering until all ingredients are used.

  6. Add stock to fill the dish.

  7. Cover the pie with puff paste.

  8. Bake for 1 hour at 400°F (200°C) to rise the paste.

  9. Reduce the temperature to 300°F (150°C) and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

  10. Brush the pie with egg yolk when about 10 minutes from being done.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Simmer the necks and trimmings of the grouse in the remaining stock.

  2. Strain the stock.

  3. Season the stock.

  4. Pour the stock into the pie before serving.

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. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Grouse
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long slow baking.
Rump steak
Adds meaty flavour and moisture to the layered filling as it cooks.
Streaky bacon
Releases fat while cooking, adding savoury richness to the filling.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a mild, creamy texture between the layers of meat.
Stock
Supplies moisture that cooks the filling and forms the gravy poured in before serving.
Puff paste
Forms a flaky, crisp crust that rises and browns in the hot oven.

The step that matters

Removing the lower back of the grouse. The lower back carries strong, bitter flavours, so removing it before cooking keeps the finished pie from tasting bitter.

“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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