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Game Pie

A savory pie made with game birds, potatoes, and a rich gravy, baked in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Game 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 the birds

  1. Clean the birds well, inside and out, and split them in half.

  2. Place the birds in a saucepan with 2 quarts of water and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  3. Add salt, pepper, parsley, onion, and cloves, then add the diced salt pork.

  4. Boil until the birds are tender, ensuring there is enough water to cover them.

Make the gravy

  1. Thicken the mixture with 2 tablespoons of browned flour and let it boil.

  2. Stir in the butter and remove from heat to cool.

  3. Prepare the diced potatoes and a rich pie crust.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a buttered pudding dish with the crust, layering in the birds and potatoes alternately until full.

  2. Pour the gravy over the layers, cover with the top crust, and cut a slit in the center.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden brown.

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

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

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Quail + porktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together308 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Birds
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long simmering in the broth.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor to the broth and gravy.
Browned flour
Thickens the liquid into a gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the gravy, giving it a smoother mouthfeel.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, soaking up gravy to make the filling heartier.
Rich pie crust
Encloses the filling and bakes to a golden, crisp top and base.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with browned flour. Flour needs to boil for its starch to swell and thicken the liquid fully. Stirring it in smoothly and simmering keeps the gravy from becoming lumpy or thin.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, pepper, parsley, clove, pork, flour, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, pepper, parsley, clove, pork, flour, egg. 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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