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Herb Pie

A vegetable pie made with lettuce, spinach, beets, parsley, leek or onion, butter, water, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble the pie

  1. In a dish, combine the chopped lettuce, spinach, beets, parsley, and leek or onion.

  2. Season with black pepper and coarse sea salt, then add butter and water.

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

  4. Cover with a crust.

  5. Bake until the pie is set.

Add the eggs and finish

  1. Beat the eggs.

  2. Remove the cup.

  3. Pour the eggs into the pie.

  4. Cover with the crust again.

  5. Bake for an additional 1-2 minutes before serving.

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

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

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

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

  5. Parsley + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs poured in set the filling and bind the vegetables together as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping flavour and moisture spread through the vegetables.
Beets
Add natural sweetness and earthy colour to the filling.
Spinach
Adds leafy bulk and moisture that wilts down during baking.
Lettuce
Adds leafy bulk and a mild, fresh flavour that softens as it cooks.

The step that matters

Remove the cup before pouring in the eggs. The cup holds open a central well for the eggs. Pouring the eggs before removing it, or removing it too late, can let the filling and egg mix unevenly or leave the centre misshapen as it sets.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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