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Menu Xlvi

Eggs in barrel filled with pheasant puree, garnished with broken aspic and celery curls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Kenney-Herbert, A. R. (Arthur Robert), 1840-1916 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Menu Xlvi

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barrels

  1. Peel and slice off the ends of six hard‑boiled eggs so that, when set upright, they will look like little barrels.

  2. With a tube‑cutter remove the yolks from the eggs, and set the barrels in a dish.

Fill and garnish

  1. Fill the hollows with pheasant puree slightly diluted with jellied sauce.

  2. Lay a disc of cooked truffle on the top of each barrel.

  3. Garnish the dish with broken aspic and curls of celery.

  4. Let the salad sauce, quite cold, accompany the dish in a boat.

Make the sauce

  1. With the removed yolks make the sauce given for No. I, Menu xxxii.

  2. The proportions for six barrels should be four large tablespoonfuls of minced pheasant mixed with two tablespoonfuls of strongly reduced sauce made on the lines of sauce à la Gogue, with which a quarter ounce of gelatine has been dissolved during the cooking of the broth.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

434Calories
18 gProtein
30 gFat
24 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Pheasantnot in our table0
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Kenney-Herbert, A. R. (Arthur Robert), 1840-1916. 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. See the original page.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Form the edible barrel shells that hold the pheasant filling.
Minced pheasant
Provides the savoury meat base of the filling.
Gelatine
Sets the jellied sauce so the filling holds its shape when chilled.

The step that matters

Fill the hollows with pheasant puree slightly diluted with jellied sauce. The filling must be thin enough to pour smoothly yet still set firmly as gelatine cools, so the barrels hold their shape when served.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, egg, pheasant, sauce, butter):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, egg, pheasant, sauce, butter. 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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