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Perigord Pie

A savory pie of veal, ham, and egg ball paste filled with strong gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and truffle work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 815 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Perigord 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 tin

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grease a long narrow tin with butter and line the bottom and sides with tart paste.

Layer the pie

  1. Spread veal forcemeat over the paste, omitting truffles and shallot.

  2. Layer pieces of veal and ham alternately with rolls of egg ball paste in the pie.

  3. Cover the layers with a thin layer of forcemeat and repeat until the pie is full.

  4. Top with a thick layer of puff paste and wash with beaten egg.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until done.

  2. Make a hole in the center and fill it with strong gravy.

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

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

  2. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Truffle + hamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together516 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Truffle + shallottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together352 recipes

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

  5. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main meat filling and gives the pie its savoury, tender body.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that contrasts with the mild veal.
Veal forcemeat
Binds the layers together and keeps the filling moist and sliceable.
Tart paste
Forms the crisp shell that holds the filling during baking.
Puff paste
Makes a flaky, golden top crust that browns when washed with egg.
Strong gravy
Adds moisture and rich flavour to the filling as the pie cooks.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, veal, truffle, ham, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Shallotthe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, veal, truffle, ham, 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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