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Braised Grouse

A braised grouse cooked with fat salt pork, onion, parsley, pepper, sea salt, sugar, and soup stock, finished with a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Braised Grouse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the grouse thoroughly, washing the inside with soda and water, then rinse and wipe dry.

  2. Truss the birds without stuffing them and tie them in shape.

Braise

  1. Cover the bottom of a saucepan with slices of fat salt pork and lay the grouse on top.

  2. Sprinkle minced onion, parsley, pepper, coarse sea salt, and a little sugar over the grouse.

  3. Cover the grouse with more pork and pour in a large cup of soup stock or broth.

  4. Cover the saucepan tightly and simmer for one hour, turning the birds occasionally until tender.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Dish the grouse.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  4. Boil the gravy.

  5. Pour the gravy into a gravy boat.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Grouse
The main protein, which becomes tender through slow, moist simmering in the closed pan.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour that enriches the braising liquid and keeps the birds moist.
Soup stock or broth
Provides the cooking liquid that steams and braises the birds and forms the base of the gravy.
Browned flour (in the method)
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the spoon, and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Minced onion
Contributes aromatic flavour that infuses the braising liquid and the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the pan tightly covered. Slow, moist heat breaks down the connective tissue in the birds. A hard boil or an uncovered pan dries the meat out, so keep the heat low and the lid on.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, parsley, pepper, sugar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, parsley, pepper, sugar. 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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