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Game Pie

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Game Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

  1. Ensure the game is fresh and remove any tainted parts.

  2. Cut the meat into large pieces and pound smaller fragments with bacon in a mortar.

  3. Season the mixture and add chopped truffles and tongue if using.

  4. Simmer the bones in cold water to make a rich broth.

  5. Layer the large pieces and pounded mixture in a deep dish, moistening with broth.

  6. Cover with a flour and water paste and bake at 350°F (175°C) for three hours.

  7. Let it cool, remove the paste, and place the dish in an ornamental frame.

  8. Cover with broken bits of aspic jelly and arrange croutons around it.

  9. Fold a napkin on a large dish, place the game pie on it, and garnish with parsley.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Truffle + parsleytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,119 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  5. Truffle + peppertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,106 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Turmericfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, pepper, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More game pie recipes

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