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Roast Grouse

Roast Grouse is a roasted game bird seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, and fat pork, served with bread sauce and fried crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Roast Grouse

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the bird

  1. Remove the neck and wings of the grouse close to the body.

  2. Cut off the feet at the joints and ensure all feathers are removed.

  3. Draw the bird and wash it quickly in cold water.

  4. Peel the onion and cut it into four parts. Place the onion inside the body of the bird and truss it.

  5. Season the bird with salt and pepper.

  6. Rub the butter over the breast and legs of the grouse. Dredge the grouse thickly with flour.

  7. Slice the fat pork thinly and lay it over the breast. Secure the fat pork with small skewers or toothpicks.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the grouse on its back on a tin plate and put it in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C). Cook the grouse for 30 minutes, keeping the oven hot for the first 15 minutes, then reduce the heat.

  2. Once cooked, remove the skewers.

  3. Pour the bread sauce onto a hot dish and place the bird on top, breast up. Sprinkle fried crumbs over the bird and sauce, and garnish with parsley.

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

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Grouse
Is the main protein; roasting cooks its lean meat until tender and browned.
Fat salt pork
Lays over the breast to baste the lean meat and keep it moist as it roasts.
Soft butter
Adds richness and helps the flour coating brown in the oven.
Flour
Dredged on the bird to form a coating that browns and helps seal in juices.
Bread sauce
Serves as a moist base under the bird that softens and adds body to the dish.

The step that matters

Keep the oven hot at the start. A hot oven at the outset sears the flour and butter coating and the surface of the lean bird, browning it and sealing in juices before the heat is lowered to finish cooking gently.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, flour, butter, bread, sauce, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, flour, butter, bread, sauce, parsley. 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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