Why it works: Brandy and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,635 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓
Christmas Tourte a LA Chatelaine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Make the case for the tourte as for the preceding one.
Fill it handsomely with minced meat.
Cover securely with pastry or thick pastry.
Bake
Bake gently for 30 minutes or longer until the filling is tender.
Serve
Remove the inside of the tourte and heap hot minced meat into it.
Pour a little fresh brandy over the minced meat.
Ignite a strip of writing paper and touch it to the tourte at the dining-room door to serve it in a blaze, or serve hot without brandy with Devonshire cream.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together2,635 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Meat + creamtop 24% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together2,248 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Meat + brandytop 26% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together328 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mince-meat
- Forms the rich, filling body of the tourte.
- Paste
- Encloses the filling and forms the crisp, browned case.
- Fresh brandy
- Adds aroma and flavour when poured over the hot filling and ignited.
- Devonshire cream
- Adds richness and a cool, smooth contrast to the hot filling.
The step that matters
Bake gently until the filling is tender. Baking gently lets the filling heat through and soften without the pastry browning too fast or the contents drying out. Cooking it long enough ensures the meat and fruit become fully tender.
“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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