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Partridge Pie a LA Francaise

A savory pie filled with partridges and a forcemeat of veal, bacon, butter, shallots, parsley, and thyme.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Partridge Pie a LA Francaise

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Season the partridges well.

  2. In a stewpan, combine veal, fat bacon, butter, shallots, parsley, and thyme. Cook until tender.

  3. Strain and pound the meat until smooth.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare the pie crust and place the partridges inside.

  2. Spread the forcemeat over the partridges and layer thin slices of bacon on top.

  3. Cover the pie with a thick lid and seal it well to prevent gravy from leaking.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 3 hours, ensuring the oven is not too hot.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Form the main filling of the pie, cooking gently inside the crust.
Veal
Provides a tender, moist meat base for the forcemeat.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and richness, keeping the forcemeat moist and flavourful.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the forcemeat turn smooth and savoury.
Shallots
Add a mild, aromatic onion flavour to the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Sealing the lid and keeping the oven moderate. A tight seal traps steam and juices so the partridges cook in their own moisture rather than drying out. A moderate oven cooks the long bake evenly, so the meat becomes tender without the crust burning or the gravy boiling away.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, parsley, thyme):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Parsnipfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, parsley, thyme. 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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