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Forcemeat Pie

A savory pie filled with hare organs, ham fat, and assorted meats, topped with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 440 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Forcemeat 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 forcemeat

  1. Combine hare livers, kidneys, hearts, and fat of ham or bacon in a bowl.

  2. Season with spiced salt, shallot, marsala, red currant jelly, and walnut pickle vinegar.

  3. Let the mixture rest for 6 hours, stirring occasionally.

Pack the pie

  1. Line a pie dish with the forcemeat, spreading a thick layer on the bottom and sides.

  2. Layer hare pieces, ham, bacon, and truffles in the dish, dusting with spiced pepper as you go.

  3. Cover with another layer of forcemeat and finish with thin slices of bacon.

  4. If using mushrooms, sauté them in butter until tender, then add to the pie during packing.

Bake

  1. Cover the pie with a pastry lid, glaze, and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Shallot + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Shallot + red curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together49 recipes

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

  3. Red currant + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together267 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hare livers, kidneys and hearts
Provide the dense, rich meat base that gives the forcemeat its body and flavour.
Fat of ham or bacon
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the forcemeat soft and juicy as it cooks.
Marsala
Adds aromatic, slightly sweet wine flavour that penetrates the meat during resting.
Red currant jelly
Contributes sweetness and a fruity tang that balances the rich meat.
Walnut pickle vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich meat and fat.
Truffles
Add a deep, earthy aroma that stands out against the meat.

The step that matters

Resting the forcemeat for 6 hours. Resting lets the salt, wine, acid and sugar from the seasonings move through the chopped meat and fat, evening out the flavour. Stirring keeps the seasoning evenly distributed so the mixture does not turn out patchy or uneven in taste.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, ham, shallot, red currant, vinegar, truffle, pepper):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Peasfits better
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, ham, shallot, red currant, vinegar, truffle, 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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