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Baking

Herb Pie

A pie filled with lettuce, spinach, beets, parsley, leek or onion, sage, pepper, sea salt, butter, water, eggs, and crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 427 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Herb Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a dish, combine the lettuce, spinach, beets, parsley, leek (or onion), sage, pepper, and salt.

  3. Add butter and water to the mixture.

Assemble

  1. Place a cup in the center of the dish.

  2. Cover with the pie crust.

  3. Bake until the pie is set.

Bake and finish

  1. Remove the cup. Pour in the beaten eggs.

  2. Cover with the crust again.

  3. Bake for an additional 1-2 minutes.

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. Lettuce + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together427 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Lettuce + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  4. Spinach + leektop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when heated, binding the filling into a firm, sliceable custard-like layer.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Spinach
Adds bulk and moisture, softening as it cooks into the filling.
Beets
Contribute earthy sweetness and color, and add moisture as they cook.
Leek or onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens during baking.

The step that matters

Bake until the pie is set before pouring in the eggs. Eggs set by heat-driven protein coagulation. If the vegetable base is not firm first, the beaten eggs can run and mix into it, leaving an uneven, soggy pie.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, spinach, parsley, leek, pepper, butter, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, spinach, parsley, leek, pepper, butter, egg. 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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