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Salmis De Bartavelles a LA Rocambole

A French dish of partridges served with a sauce of Sauternes wine, crushed rocamboles, and velouté, topped with blanched rocamboles and croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,645 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Salmis De Bartavelles a LA Rocambole

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the sauce

  1. Prepare the partridges as indicated for other salmis.

  2. Place all scraps in a saucepan with 2 cups of Sauternes wine. Add crushed rocamboles, civet, mace, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Reduce the mixture by half. Add 1 tablespoon of white stock and cook for 45 minutes.

  4. Strain through a cloth. Reduce by one-third.

  5. Stir in 2 tablespoons of velouté sauce.

  6. Thicken with 4 egg yolks.

  7. Pass through a fine sieve in a double boiler.

  8. Keep some sauce warm for serving.

Prepare the rocamboles

  1. Blanch the fresh rocamboles in boiling water until tender.

  2. Cool them in cold water.

  3. Drain and dry them on a cloth.

  4. Sauté the rocamboles in a pan with butter and 2 tablespoons of the salmis sauce.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange the partridge pieces with croutons.

  2. Cover with rocamboles.

  3. Add the sauce.

  4. Finish with a pinch of chopped civet and demi-glace.

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. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Wine + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Red partridges
Provide the main meat, which is cooked in the sauce and served as the centrepiece.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, giving it body and a smooth texture.
Sauternes wine
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it reduces into the sauce.
Demi-glace
Adds concentrated savoury flavour and a glossy body to the finished sauce.
Fresh rocamboles
Add a tender, mild-onion flavour and texture to the dish, sautéed in butter.

The step that matters

Thicken with 4 egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the sauce boils or is heated too fast, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy. Using a double boiler keeps the temperature low and the sauce smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, pepper, egg, butter, sauce):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, pepper, egg, butter, sauce. 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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