Skip to main content
Main

French Game Pie

A savory pie filled with minced veal, pork, game, bacon, truffle, and spices, topped with pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pork and pheasant work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 240 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

French Game 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. Finely chop the veal and pork or pass them through a mincing machine.

  2. Season the meat with aromatic spice and coarse sea salt, then add finely chopped truffle.

  3. Cut the game into neat joints.

Assemble the pie

  1. Line a pie dish with the prepared forcemeat.

  2. Place a layer of game pieces on top, followed by a few slices of bacon and more forcemeat.

  3. Repeat layering until the pie dish is well filled.

  4. Moisten with ½ cup of stock or water.

  5. Cover with a pastry crust, decorate, and brush with egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1½ hours.

  2. Serve hot or cold.

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. Pork + pheasanttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together240 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Veal + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

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

  3. Pork + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

  4. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Pheasant + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Adds a mild, tender body to the forcemeat that holds the filling together.
Pork
Its fat keeps the forcemeat moist and rich during the long bake.
Game
Gives the main meaty flavour and firm pieces that contrast with the forcemeat.
Bacon
Its fat bastes the layers and adds savoury, smoky flavour.
Truffle
Contributes a strong earthy aroma that perfumes the whole meat filling.
Pastry
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven to form a protective crust.

The step that matters

Moistening with stock or water before covering. The liquid keeps the meat from drying out during baking, while the forcemeat and fat help bind and enrich the filling as it cooks.

“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.

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesPheasant SoupPheasant Soup25 recipes