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Raised Pheasant Pee, Hot

A hot pie made with pheasants, truffles, bacon, and espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pheasant and truffle work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 133 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Raised Pheasant Pee, Hot

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pheasants

  1. Hang the pheasants for 5 days, then pick, singe, and cut them up.

  2. Parboil the pheasants with sweet herbs.

Build the pie

  1. Make a raised crust 4 inches high and 7 inches round, wider at the top and bottom than the sides.

  2. Spread a good layer of farce on the bottom and sides of the crust.

  3. Layer the legs and backs of the pheasants, then add halved truffles, fillets, and breast pieces.

  4. Continue layering with truffles and other portions of the birds until the pie is full.

  5. Pour the cooking herbs over the layers, add 2 bay leaves, and cover with bacon slices.

  6. Cover the top with pastry, decorate as desired, and brush with beaten egg yolk.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) until nicely colored.

  2. Remove the top, place 4 round pieces of paper in place of the lid, and bake for 1.5 hours.

  3. Drain off the fat and pour in the espagnole sauce with minced truffles.

  4. Glaze the crust and serve immediately.

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. Pheasant + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  2. Pheasant + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  3. Truffle + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,604 recipes

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

  4. Truffle + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,490 recipes
  5. Pheasant + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasants
Provide the main meat, which is parboiled, then layered and baked in the crust.
Truffles
Add a strong earthy aroma to the meat and the finished sauce.
Bacon
Lays over the top layers, adding fat that bastes the meat and flavor as it bakes.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the pastry to promote browning and a glossy finish.
Espagnole sauce
Poured in after baking to add moisture and savory richness to the pie.

The step that matters

Remove the top and drain the fat before adding the sauce. Fat pooled in the pie would make the sauce greasy and thin, so it must be drained off first. Pouring the sauce in after baking keeps it from being diluted or overcooked.

“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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