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Dessert

French Pie

A savory pie filled with forcemeat, sweetbread, oysters, poultry, artichoke, asparagus, mushrooms, and seasoned with mace, cloves, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Artichoke and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 165 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

French 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

  1. Make a raised crust in a buttered tin.

  2. Brush the crust with egg yolk.

  3. Cover the bottom with forcemeat.

Fill and season

  1. Fill the pie with sweetbread, oysters, chicken, turkey, or rabbit, artichoke bottoms, asparagus tops, forcemeat balls, and mushrooms.

  2. Arrange the filling evenly.

  3. Season lightly with mace, cloves, and cayenne pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. When done, pour in some good white sauce.

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. Artichoke + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Asparagus + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together400 recipes

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

  5. Artichoke + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together175 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Forcemeat
Forms a savoury base layer that cushions the filling and keeps the pie moist.
Sweetbread
Provides a rich, tender meat texture in the filling.
Oysters
Adds a briny, savoury flavour to the filling.
Chicken, turkey, or rabbit limbs
Supply the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful during baking.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the filling.
White sauce
Adds creaminess and moisture to the pie when poured in after baking.

The step that matters

Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C). Baking at a moderate heat lets the meat and forcemeat cook through gently while the raised crust sets and browns. Too hot an oven can scorch the crust before the filling is cooked.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, oyster, chicken, artichoke, asparagus, mushroom, clove):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, oyster, chicken, artichoke, asparagus, mushroom, clove. 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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