Why it works: Turkey and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,592 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Yorkshire Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the birds
Bone the goose, turkey, and ducks by splitting them open at the backs.
Boil the old hare with plenty of spices until the bones fall freely from the flesh.
Make a rich forcemeat with the hare and other ingredients.
Stuff the forcemeat into the birds.
Assemble and bake
Place the stuffed birds inside a thick raised crust.
Fill the sides with partridges or woodcocks and cover tightly.
Bake for 4 hours.
Finish and rest
Pour in the hare gravy and melted butter.
Seal the hole.
Let it rest for at least a week before cutting.
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.
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Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Goose
- Provides rich meat and fat that bastes the layered filling as it cooks.
- Turkey
- Adds lean, bulky meat to the layered filling, giving body to the pie.
- Ducks
- Contribute rich, fatty meat that keeps the filling moist during the long bake.
- Old hare
- Its boiled meat and bones make the forcemeat and a concentrated gravy.
- Thick raised crust
- Forms a sturdy case that holds the birds and keeps the filling moist and contained.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the filling as it is poured in.
The step that matters
Pour in the hare gravy and melted butter after baking. Liquid added to a hot, fully cooked pie must be poured in carefully through the hole so it fills the gaps without making the crust soggy; the fat and gelatin then set as the pie cools.
“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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