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Salmis De Macreuse, Ou De Bisette

A French stew of chicken or duck pieces cooked with roux, wine, onion, spices, and served over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Salmis De Macreuse, Ou De Bisette

8-10 people

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bird

  1. Skin the bird instead of plucking it.

  2. Gut the bird.

  3. Detach the limbs.

  4. Cut the limbs and carcass into pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. Make a roux with the butter and flour until it turns a nice brown color.

  2. Add the chopped onion and sauté until soft.

  3. Deglaze with the red wine and water.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, spices, nutmeg, and bouquet garni.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the bird pieces, reserving the liver.

  2. Cook for two hours over low heat.

  3. Mash the liver and stir it into the sauce for a minute or two.

  4. Serve the dish over slices of toasted bread.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Bird (macreuse or bisette)
Provides the meat and bones that give the stew its body and flavor.
Butter
Fat that carries flavor and, with flour, forms the browned roux base.
Flour
Thickens the sauce and, when browned, adds color and nutty flavor.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth, and is used to deglaze the pan.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory aroma as it softens in the fat.
Liver
Enriches the sauce with a rich, smooth texture and deeper flavor.

The step that matters

Browning the roux. The roux must reach a nice brown without scorching. Browned flour adds color and nutty flavor and thickens the sauce, while burnt flour turns bitter and can spoil the whole stew.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, flour, red wine, pepper, nutmeg, liver):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, red wine, pepper, nutmeg, liver. 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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