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Partridge Pie

A savory pie with partridges stuffed with a forcemeat of veal, ham, bacon, and artichoke.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Partridge Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the partridges and forcemeat

  1. Truss the partridges like you would for boiling.

  2. Season the partridges with pepper, salt, and mace.

  3. Bake the veal and ham in the oven until tender.

  4. Drain the veal and ham and pound them in a mortar.

  5. Mix the pounded meat with its cooking liquid.

  6. Add grated bread and chopped bacon to part of the forcemeat.

  7. Place a walnut-sized portion of forcemeat into each partridge.

Build the crust and bake

  1. Make a raised crust in an oblong shape.

  2. Layer sliced bacon, veal, and artichoke bottoms in the bottom.

  3. Lay the partridges on top.

  4. Add a thick layer of forcemeat.

  5. Cover with slices of bacon.

  6. Brush the edges with beaten egg white.

  7. Cover with the top crust.

  8. Pinch to seal.

  9. Bake for 3.5 hours.

  10. Before serving, brush the outside with egg white.

  11. Cover with fringed foolscap paper.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the bulk of the forcemeat, giving a firm, tender, sliceable filling.
Partridges
Provide the main meat, which cooks through slowly inside the sealed crust.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the forcemeat, softening its texture.
Egg white
Brushed on the crust, it sets and browns to seal and glaze the pastry.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and binds the forcemeat so it holds together when sliced.

The step that matters

Pinch to seal the top crust. A tight seal keeps moisture and juices inside during the long bake, so the meat stays moist rather than drying out.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, veal, ham, shallot, parsley, lemon, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, veal, ham, shallot, parsley, lemon, thyme. 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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