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Quail Pie

A savory pie made with quails, foie gras, beef, bacon, and a rich gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Quail Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the quails for roasting, placing 2 teaspoons of foie gras in each.

  2. Make a strong gravy using the calf's foot or sheep's feet and giblets, then cool and remove grease.

  3. Flavor the gravy with Marsala, mushroom ketchup, and a little red currant jelly.

Assemble the pie

  1. Rub the pie dish with a shallot and layer the bottom with pieces of tender beef and strips of bacon, dusting with spiced pepper between layers.

  2. Place the quails on top of the beef, adding bits of foie gras, bacon, ham, tongue, or Bologna sausage between each bird.

  3. Cover with slices of bacon, moisten with gravy, and reserve some for later.

Bake

  1. Cover with a light pastry and bake.

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

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

  2. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

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

  4. Wine + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  5. Quail + chickentop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 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

Quails
Form the main filling, with their meat cooking within the pie and their juices flavoring the gravy.
Foie gras
Adds richness and a buttery, savory depth to the quail meat.
Beef fillet steak
Provides tender meat layers that add body and savory flavor to the pie.
Calf's foot or sheep's feet
Releases gelatin into the gravy, giving it body that sets as it cools.
Bacon
Adds salty, smoky fat that bastes the filling and adds savory flavor.
Red currant jelly
Adds a little sweetness and acidity to balance the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Make the strong gravy and remove the grease. The gravy must be well reduced and fully chilled before skimming, because its gelatin is what moistens and sets the pie. Leftover fat can make the filling greasy and keep the gravy from firming.

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, chicken, beef, wine, mushroom, ketchup, pepper):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Grapefits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, chicken, beef, wine, mushroom, ketchup, pepper. 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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