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Dessert

Raised French Pie

A raised pie made with a flour dough, filled with a chosen entrée such as chicken or rabbit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raised French Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Make a paste with the flour.

  2. Knead the paste well into a ball.

  3. Press your thumb into the center of the dough.

  4. Shape the dough into an oval or round form, about 5 inches high.

  5. Place the dough on a sheet of paper.

Shape and bake

  1. Fill the dough with coarse flour or bran.

  2. Roll out a covering of the same thickness as the sides.

  3. Attach the covering with egg yolk.

  4. Cut the edges evenly.

  5. Pinch the edges with your fingers.

  6. Brush the top with egg yolk.

  7. Decorate the top as desired.

  8. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until golden brown.

Finish and serve

  1. Once baked, cut out the top.

  2. Remove the filling from the top.

  3. Clean the top.

  4. Fill the pie with your chosen fricassee.

  5. Serve with a napkin underneath.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + chickentop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  3. Egg + chickentop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the paste and dough that holds the pie's shape while baking.
Egg yolk
Glues the lid to the sides and, brushed on top, promotes browning and a glossy golden finish.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven until golden brown. A slow oven lets the thick dough walls cook through without the outside browning too fast. Browning comes from the egg yolk and dough surface, so check colour and interior doneness together.

“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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