Name: Cremes of Pheasants Au Gratin
Ingredients: 2 pheasants; butter for greasing; 20 tartlet moulds; bread crumbs from 3/4 of a half-quartern loaf; 3 whole eggs; 3 egg yolks; salt to taste; sifted flour for coating

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cremes of Pheasants Au Gratin

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 cream of pheasants as directed, and place the bones on the fire for sauce.
Butter the tartlet moulds and fill them with the cream of pheasants, leveling the tops with a knife.
Arrange the filled moulds on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 6 minutes, until firm to the touch.
Remove from the oven and let cool in the larder before carefully removing from the moulds onto a china dish.
Make fine bread crumbs from the loaf.
In a bowl, crack the eggs and yolks, checking for freshness, then mix with a little salt and beat with a whisk.
Dip each tartlet in sifted flour, then brush with the egg mixture, and coat with bread crumbs.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Pheasant + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together225 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

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Cremes of Pheasants Au Gratin