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Duck Pie

A pie made by stuffing a duck with a fowl and pickled calf's tongue, seasoned with pepper, salt, mace, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Duck Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Bone the duck and fowl, then wash them.

Assemble

  1. Season the duck and fowl with pepper, coarse sea salt, mace, and allspice.

  2. Place the fowl inside the duck.

  3. Add the pickled calf's tongue.

  4. Press the skins of the legs inward to smooth the body of the fowl.

  5. If desired, fill the space between the crust with a fine forcemeat.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) in a raised crust or pie dish with a thick crust.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Chicken + allspicetop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together410 recipes

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

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Duck
Provides the main meat and rich, fatty flavor of the pie.
Fowl (chicken)
Fills the inside of the duck, adding moisture and savory body to the meat.
Pickled calf's tongue
Adds a tangy, savory flavor and a tender, meaty texture.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that complements the rich meats.
Allspice
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that rounds out the meat flavors.

The step that matters

Baking in a slow oven. A low, slow bake gives the tough connective tissue in the duck and fowl time to soften into tender meat while the juices stay in. A hotter oven tends to dry out the outer meat before the centre is tender.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, allspice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, allspice. 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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