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Giblet Pie

A savory pie filled with goose giblets, seasoned with pepper and salt, baked in pastry and glazed with egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Giblet Pie

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,047 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Giblet 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 the giblets

  1. Clean the goose giblets.

  2. Half-stew the goose giblets until tender.

  3. Cut the leg in half, the wing and neck into three pieces, and the gizzard into four pieces.

  4. Preserve the cooking liquid.

  5. Let the giblets cool to avoid spoiling the pastry.

Assemble and bake

  1. Season the giblets with black pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Place the seasoned giblets in a deep dish.

  3. If desired, layer a moderately thick rump steak.

  4. If desired, add pieces of cold game or poultry to the pie.

  5. Cover the dish with pastry.

  6. Brush the pastry with egg yolk.

  7. Bake for 1.5 hours at 350°F (175°C).

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Skim the fat from the reserved cooking liquid.

  2. Heat the fat in a clean saucepan.

  3. Thicken the liquid with flour and butter or flour and water.

  4. Season the thickened liquid with pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

  5. Add a few drops of browning sauce.

  6. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve.

  7. Pour some of the strained sauce into the pie after baking.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Goose giblets
Provide the main meaty filling, becoming tender and flavourful through slow stewing.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, body-rich sauce as it heats.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the thickened sauce, giving it a smoother mouthfeel.
Egg yolk
Glazes the pastry, promoting browning and a glossy golden finish in the oven.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the seasoned sauce and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Let the giblets cool before covering with pastry. Placing pastry over hot filling can make it steam and soften or turn soggy, spoiling the crust. Cooling first keeps the pastry crisp and helps it bake evenly.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Raisinabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, flour, butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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