Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Broiled Partridge
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pluck, draw, and cut the partridges in half.
Wipe the inside thoroughly with a damp cloth.
Season with salt and cayenne pepper.
Cook and serve
Broil over a clear fire until cooked.
Place on a hot dish and rub a small piece of butter over each half.
Serve with brown gravy or mushroom sauce.
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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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Partridges
- Form the main meat of the dish, cooked by direct heat from the broiling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a glossy finish when rubbed over the hot halves.
The step that matters
Broil over a clear fire until cooked. Partridge is lean and dries out quickly under direct heat. Cooking over a clear, steady fire rather than flaring flames helps the meat cook through evenly while staying moist and avoiding burnt surfaces.
“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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