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Partridge Pie

A savory pie with partridges stewed in gravy, forcemeat, eggs, and mushroom ketchup, topped with puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Partridge Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Assemble the pie

  1. Place the veal cutlet in the bottom of a deep dish.

  2. Fill the partridges with forcemeat made from minced veal, bread crumbs, and salt.

  3. Stew the partridges in good gravy for a short time.

  4. Put the partridges in the dish with their breasts downwards.

  5. Pour the gravy from the stew over the birds.

  6. Fill the dish with forcemeat balls and chopped hard boiled eggs.

  7. Add mushroom ketchup just before covering with the crust.

Bake

  1. Bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

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 becomes tender and juicy when gently stewed and then baked.
Veal cutlet
Forms a meaty base layer that cooks gently beneath the birds and adds savory flavor.
Bread crumbs
Bind the minced veal forcemeat and soak up juices so the stuffing stays moist.
Hard boiled eggs
Add firm texture and richness to the filling.
Gravy
Supplies moisture and savory depth that keeps the birds from drying in the oven.
Puff pastry
Bakes into flaky, crisp layers that seal and cover the filling.

The step that matters

Stewing the partridges briefly. Partial cooking in gravy sets the birds and seasons them before baking. Lean game dries out quickly, so a short stew lets the oven finish them without overcooking.

“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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