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Lark Pie

A savory pie made with larks, bacon, beef, herbs, and flaky pastry, baked with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lark 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 the larks

  1. Empty the larks and remove their heads, necks, and legs.

  2. Roll the larks in flour and fill them with moist forcemeat.

Assemble the pie

  1. Place the beef at the bottom of a dish; if tough, cook it slightly first.

  2. Layer half the bacon, then the larks, and top with the remaining bacon.

  3. Make gravy from the trimmings and pour it over the layers.

Bake

  1. Cover with flaky pastry and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 1.5 hours until well glazed.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Larks
Form the main meat filling, providing the dish's core flavour and substance.
Forcemeat of herbs
Adds moisture and a seasoned, tender stuffing inside each lark.
Bacon
Fat that bastes the larks and adds savoury flavour as it renders.
Lean beef
Adds meaty body to the base layer of the pie.
Flaky pastry
Forms a crisp, golden crust that seals the pie and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cook the beef first if tough. Lean beef that is tough will not soften during a short bake alongside the birds, so partially cooking it helps ensure it is tender when the pie is served.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper):

  1. Rosemaryfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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