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Partridge Pie

A savory pie made with partridges, liver mixture, bacon, mushrooms, and veal gravy, finished with orange juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Partridge 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 the filling

  1. Truss the partridges as you would fowls for boiling.

  2. In a mortar, combine the livers, bacon, parsley, shallots, pepper, salt, and mace; beat until well mixed. Add fresh mushrooms to the mixture and pound to a paste.

Assemble the pie

  1. Prepare a pie crust and cover the bottom with the seasoning mixture.

  2. Place the trussed partridges in the crust without stuffing.

  3. Add the remaining seasoning around the sides and between the partridges.

  4. Sprinkle with additional pepper, salt, mace, finely shredded shallots, fresh mushrooms, and finely beaten bacon. Top with thin slices of bacon, cover with the pie lid, and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 2 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Once baked, remove the lid, take out the bacon, and skim off the fat.

  2. Pour in the veal gravy and squeeze in the orange juice; serve hot.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Liver + vealtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  4. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + orangetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together680 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 flavours the filling as it bakes.
Livers
Add a rich, savoury depth and a smooth texture when pounded into the paste.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky, savoury flavour that moistens the meat and filling as it cooks.
Fresh mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy savour to the seasoning paste and topping.
Veal gravy
Adds liquid and concentrated savoury flavour to the finished pie.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat after baking. Rendered fat from the bacon and birds pools in the pie during baking. Removing it before the gravy goes in keeps the finished dish from tasting greasy and lets the gravy's flavour come through.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, parsley, shallot, pepper, mushroom, veal, orange):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, parsley, shallot, pepper, mushroom, veal, orange. 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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