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Forcemeat Pie

A savory pie filled with forcemeat, fowl, ham, tongue, and optional truffles, mushrooms, and eggs, seasoned with herbs and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Forcemeat Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA very steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very steady oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the forcemeat and set aside.

  2. Parboil or braise the fowl until half cooked.

  3. Line a pie dish with the crust, ensuring it is at least ½ inch thick.

Fill and season

  1. Fill the bottom and sides with forcemeat.

  2. Place the cold fowl in the center and fill gaps with ham, tongue, truffles, mushrooms, and forcemeat balls.

  3. Season well with parsley, white pepper, cayenne, lemon peel, and nutmeg.

Bake and glaze

  1. Cover with a lid of pie crust and seal with paper to prevent burning.

  2. Bake in a steady oven at 300°F (150°C) for 2½ to 3 hours.

  3. Glaze the top when nearly done, but avoid over-browning.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Forcemeat
Forms the main body of the pie and stays moist and tender as it cooks.
Fowl
Provides the central meat, which is partly cooked before baking so it finishes tender.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and holds its shape while the pie bakes.
Cooked ham
Adds savoury flavour and firmness to the filling between the fowl and forcemeat.
Cooked tongue
Adds savoury flavour and a firm, sliceable texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake in a steady, moderate oven with paper over the lid. Meat and forcemeat need long, gentle heat to cook through evenly. A high or uneven oven can scorch the crust or leave the centre undercooked, and the paper protects the lid from burning during the long bake.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, truffle, mushroom, egg, parsley, pepper, lemon):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, truffle, mushroom, egg, parsley, pepper, lemon. 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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