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Pheasant Pie a LA Francaise

A pheasant pie filled with seasoned joints, pâté, and mushrooms, wrapped in short pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓

Pheasant Pie a LA Francaise

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 mold

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter the inside of a square flour-mold and place it on a baking tin lined with buttered paper.

  3. Line the mold with short pastry, about ¼ inch thick, pressing it into shape.

Fill the pie

  1. Season the pheasant joints with mignonette pepper, salt, mushrooms, shallot, thyme, bay leaf, parsley, and chopped livers.

  2. Place a piece of pâté de foie gras in each joint and roll them into cylinder shapes.

  3. Layer the rolled pieces in the pie until full.

Cover and bake

  1. Wet the edges of the pastry and cover the pie with more pastry, trimming the edges.

  2. Roll out the remaining pastry thinly and cut into rounds about 1½ inches in diameter, shaping them into small shells.

  3. Brush the top of the pie with cold water and place the shells on top until covered.

  4. Make a small hole in the center for filling with gravy later.

  5. Wrap a band of buttered paper around the pie, extending 3 inches above it.

  6. Bake in the preheated oven for 1½ to 2 hours, covering the top with wet paper during baking.

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

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

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasant
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy during the long, covered bake.
Pâté de foie gras
Melts into the meat, adding richness and moisture to each rolled joint.
Fresh mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavor that blends into the filling as it cooks.
Short paste
Forms the sturdy case that holds the filling and bakes to a crisp, golden shell.
Shallot
Adds a mild, sweet onion-like aroma that builds the flavor base of the filling.

The step that matters

Covering the pie with wet paper during baking. Damp paper shields the top crust from direct heat so it cooks through without over-browning before the meat is tender.

“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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