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French Pie

A savory pie filled with forcemeat, sweetbread, oysters, eggs, poultry, artichoke, asparagus, mushrooms, and seasoned with salt, mace, cloves, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Artichoke and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 165 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

French 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 crust

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

  2. Grease a tin with butter and make a raised crust.

  3. Brush the crust with egg yolk.

  4. Cover the bottom with forcemeat.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the pie with sweetbread, oysters, hard-boiled eggs, boned chicken, turkey, or rabbit, artichoke bottoms, asparagus tops, forcemeat balls, and mushrooms, layering them evenly.

  2. Season lightly with salt, mace, cloves, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until done.

Finish and serve

  1. Once baked, pour in strong gravy and cream thickened with flour and butter.

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. Artichoke + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  3. Asparagus + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together400 recipes

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

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Artichoke + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together447 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Forcemeat
Forms a savoury meat base that holds the filling together as it sets.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the crust, it promotes browning and a glossy finish.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm, set texture and body to the filling.
Strong gravy
Adds meaty depth and moisture to the filling after baking.
Cream thickened with flour and butter
Adds richness and a silky, lightly thickened texture to the filling.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy flavour and moisture to the layered filling.

The step that matters

Pour in the gravy and cream after baking. Adding the liquid after baking keeps the crust and layers from turning soggy during the bake, while the flour-thickened cream still gives the filling a smooth, cohesive texture.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, meat, oyster, chicken, artichoke, mushroom):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Asparagusthe original
  3. Spinachfits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, meat, oyster, chicken, artichoke, mushroom. 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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