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Squirrel Pot Pie

A savory pot pie made with squirrel, potatoes, and a buttery pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Squirrel Pot Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the squirrel and potatoes

  1. Skin, draw, remove the head and feet, and wash the squirrel well.

  2. Soak the squirrel in strong salt-water to draw out the blood and wild taste.

  3. Wash the squirrel again and parboil in salt-water until tender.

  4. Peel and dice the potatoes, then boil them in weak salt-water until soft.

Make the pastry

  1. In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Rub the butter into the flour mixture until well combined.

  3. Add the milk to form the pastry dough.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pudding dish with part of the pastry.

  2. Layer the potatoes and squirrel alternately in the dish until all ingredients are used.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, celery salt, parsley, and add the walnut-sized butter.

  4. Dust the top with flour and cover with the remaining pastry.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Squirrel
Provides the meat that forms the filling of the pie.
Potatoes
Add bulk and a soft, starchy body to the filling.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the pastry dough.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the pastry rise and lighten.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the pastry tender and rich.
Milk
Moistens the flour so it binds into a workable dough.

The step that matters

Soak and parboil the squirrel. Soaking draws out blood and strong gamy flavour, and parboiling tenderises the meat before baking. Skipping or rushing these steps leaves the filling tough or strongly tasting, since the pie bakes only 30 minutes.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, flour, butter, milk, pepper, celery, parsley):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Lentilsfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, flour, butter, milk, pepper, celery, 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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