Name: To Roast Pheasants, Partridges, Quails or Grouse
Ingredients: a spoonful of browned flour; a pint of claret; two large oranges; salt; nutmeg

Why it works: Orange and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,746 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Roast Pheasants, Partridges, Quails or Grouse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the birds

Pick and draw the birds immediately after they are brought in.
Before roasting, fill the inside with pieces of a fine ripe orange, leaving out the rind and seeds.
Or stuff them with grated cold ham, mixed with bread-crumbs, butter, and a little yolk of egg.
Lard them with small slips of the fat of bacon drawn through the flesh with a larding needle.

Roast

Roast them before a clear fire.
If you stuff them with force-meat, instead of larding, brush them all over with beaten yolk of egg.
Cover them with bread-crumbs grated finely and sifted.
Cut some very thin slices of cold ham or bacon, and cover the birds with them.
Wrap them closely in sheets of white paper well buttered, put them on the spit, and roast them before a clear fire.

Make the gravy and serve

Make a fine rich gravy of the trimmings of meat or poultry, stewed in a little water, and thickened with a spoonful of browned flour.
Strain it, and set it on the fire again, having added half a pint of claret, and the juice of two large oranges.
Simmer it for a few minutes, pour some of it into the dish with the game, and serve the remainder in a boat.
Chop some fine raw oysters, omitting the hard part; mix them with salt, nutmeg, and add some beaten yolk of egg to bind the other ingredients.
Send them to table with oyster-sauce in a boat.
Pies may be made of any of these birds in the same manner as a pigeon pie.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

529Calories

14 gProtein

2 gFat

111 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

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

By Eliza Leslie. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,746 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + orangetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,821 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Browned flour: Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat and spoon.
Claret: Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the gravy.
Oranges: Add bright acidity and fruity aroma to the gravy and the birds.
Yolk of egg (in the method): Binds the stuffing and gives a glossy browned finish to the birds.

The step that matters

Simmer the gravy only briefly after adding the claret and juice. Long boiling reduces the wine and orange juice too far, making the gravy sharp and thick; a few gentle minutes keeps the flavour fresh and the texture pourable.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, nutmeg):

Raisinfits better
Blueberryfits better
Limefits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, nutmeg. 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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To Roast Pheasants, Partridges, Quails or Grouse