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Game Pie

A savory pie made with game meat, Farci meat, vegetables, and aspic jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Game Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Stew the bones of the game with carrots, onions, celery, and sweet herbs in 2 quarts of water until flavorful.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Season with salt and sugar.

  4. Let it cool.

  5. Remove any grease.

  6. Color the stock with brown coloring.

  7. Reduce it to nearly half-glaze.

Prepare the filling

  1. Fillet the boned game into bite-sized pieces.

  2. Fry the fillets in a little butter until set.

Assemble and cook the pie

  1. Line a pie dish with layers of Farci meat and game.

  2. Sprinkle pepper, salt, and chopped parsley between layers.

  3. Pour some of the stock between each layer.

  4. Fill to within 1 inch of the top.

  5. Pour the remaining stock over it.

  6. Place the pie dish in a stewpan of warm water.

  7. Simmer for 2 to 3 hours, depending on the size of the pie.

  8. Once removed, press the top even with a dish or spoon.

Finish

  1. When cold, cover with aspic jelly.

  2. Add more aspic jelly each day.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Boned game
Provides the main meat and bulk of the pie's filling.
Farci meat
Forms the layered meat filling that gives the pie its body.
Butter
Browns the game fillets lightly, adding richness and flavor before they set.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear glaze on top, adding moisture and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Reducing the stock to nearly half-glaze. Stock must be reduced until concentrated enough to set firmly when cold. If it is too thin, it will not gel and the pie will be loose and wet when sliced.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, carrot, celery, sugar, butter, pepper, parsley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, celery, sugar, butter, pepper, parsley. 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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