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Partridge Pie

A savory pie with partridges, veal, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, parsley, stock, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Partridge Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the partridges

  1. Draw, singe, and quarter the partridges, then fry them in hot butter until lightly browned.

Assemble the pie

  1. Cut the veal into thin slices and place them in the bottom of a pie dish, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  2. Layer the partridges on top, interspersed with strips of bacon and quarters of hard-boiled egg.

  3. Sprinkle the mushrooms, parsley, and onion over the top, then season again with salt and pepper.

  4. Add stock to fill the dish, then cover with pastry.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for the first part, then reduce to 300°F (150°C) for the remainder.

  2. Cover the pie with greased paper to prevent over-browning, and brush with egg yolk for a glaze before serving.

  3. Warm the remaining stock and pour it into the pie 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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  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

Partridges
Provide the main meat, browned first so the flavour develops before baking.
Veal cutlet
Adds tender meat that cooks slowly under the pastry, adding body to the filling.
Streaky bacon
Fat renders into the filling, adding savoury flavour and moisture to the meat.
Stock
Adds moisture that becomes a savoury liquid around the meat as the pie bakes.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm, mild texture and richness to the filling.

The step that matters

Browning the partridges before assembling. Frying until lightly browned builds flavour through the Maillard reaction. Partridge is lean, so searing gently and not overcooking it keeps the meat from drying out during the long bake.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, egg, mushroom, parsley, 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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