Skip to main content
Main

Stuffed Ptarmigan

A roasted ptarmigan stuffed with a breadcrumb and butter mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Thyme and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Stuffed Ptarmigan

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dressing

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Season the bread crumbs with thyme, sage, summer savory, salt, and pepper.

  3. Fry the onion in 2 tablespoons of butter until light brown.

  4. Combine the fried onion and butter with the bread crumbs and add 1 tablespoon of butter, broken into bits.

  5. Beat the egg and mix it with the stock, then pour it over the bread crumbs and mix well.

Stuff and prepare the birds

  1. Clean the ptarmigans, removing necks and wings close to the body.

  2. Stuff each ptarmigan with a third of the dressing and truss them.

  3. Season the birds with salt and pepper, rub soft butter over the breasts and legs, and dredge with flour.

  4. Place a slice of pork on each breast and lay the birds on their backs in a dripping pan.

Roast and serve

  1. Cook for 25 minutes in the oven or 30 minutes before the fire, until moderately rare.

  2. Serve immediately, keeping the pork on the breast.

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. Thyme + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together214 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ptarmigans
Provide the lean meat that is the main dish of the recipe.
Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the dressing, soaking up butter and stock to keep the stuffing moist.
Egg
Binds the dressing so it holds together when stuffed and cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and promoting browning on the birds.
Fat pork
Lays over the breasts to baste the lean birds and keep them from drying out.
Stock
Moistens the dressing so the bread crumbs absorb liquid and stay tender.

The step that matters

Cook until moderately rare. Ptarmigan is very lean and dries out quickly, so timing matters. Overcooking toughens the proteins and dries the meat, while the pork and butter help protect the breast.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, butter, thyme, sage, summer savory, pork):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, butter, thyme, sage, summer savory, pork. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes