Skip to main content
Main

Salmis De Faisans

A rich pheasant gravy made with Madeira wine, mirepoix, espagnole sauce, and served with fried bread croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pheasant and bread work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 239 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Salmis De Faisans

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.

Prepare the sauce

  1. Roast the pheasants; once cooled, carve them and place in a saucepan.

  2. Crush the carcasses and trimmings; add the Madeira wine and mirepoix.

  3. Reduce the mixture by half, then add the espagnole sauce.

  4. Simmer for 15 minutes, skimming and degreasing as needed.

  5. Strain the sauce, reserving half for later use.

Serve

  1. Heat the pheasants gently without boiling; arrange them on a serving platter.

  2. Garnish with fried and glazed bread croutons.

  3. Sauce the pheasants with the reserved sauce and serve.

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. Pheasant + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together239 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Pheasant + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  3. Madeira wine + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together230 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Madeira wine + breadtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together119 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasants
Provide the main meat, which is roasted, carved and then gently reheated in the sauce.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and depth as it reduces, building the flavour base of the gravy.
Mirepoix
Adds aromatic vegetable flavour that is released and concentrated during simmering.
Espagnole sauce
Forms the body and richness of the gravy, giving it a thick, glossy texture.

The step that matters

Heat the pheasants gently without boiling. Boiling toughens meat proteins and dries out the flesh, so the pheasants should be warmed slowly in the sauce.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes