Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Partridges with Olives
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the partridges
Lard the partridges with fine larding pork.
Line a narrow saucepan with pork, minced roots, and onions.
Season and moisten the partridges with a little white wine.
Reduce the mixture to a glaze.
Cook and make the sauce
Cook the partridges in very little moisture with stock.
Reduce the cooking liquid to a glaze several times.
Once cooked, drain and untruss the partridges.
Strain the stock.
Skim off fat from the stock.
Reduce the strained stock.
Incorporate the reduced stock into brown sauce, adding 2 tablespoons of Madeira.
Garnish and serve
Dress the partridges on a dish.
Garnish the partridges with olives stuffed with baked forcemeat.
Poach the olives and cover them with some of the sauce.
Serve the rest of the olives in a sauce-boat.
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.
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Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,779 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + olivetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,716 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Onion + white winetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,535 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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White wine + olivetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,949 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Partridges
- Provide the main meat, which is kept moist by slow cooking in little liquid.
- Fine larding pork
- Adds fat that bastes the lean partridge meat and keeps it moist during cooking.
- White wine
- Moistens the birds and adds acidity that brightens the sauce's flavour.
- Stock
- Forms the cooking liquid, which reduces to a concentrated glaze that flavours the sauce.
- Brown sauce
- Gives the dish a rich, body-giving base for the reduced stock.
- Madeira
- Adds sweetness and aroma to the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Reducing the cooking liquid to a glaze. Repeated reduction concentrates flavour and gives body, but if it goes too far the liquid scorches or turns overly salty and bitter. Stop when it coats a spoon and keep the pan watched.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, white wine, sauce, olive):
- Tomatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, white wine, sauce, olive. 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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