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Roast Quail

Roast quail seasoned with bacon or butter and coarse sea salt, served on hot buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Roast Quail

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare and roast

  1. Dress the quail as you would a chicken.

  2. Place it in a hot pan in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C).

  3. Lay a strip of fat bacon over the breast or add a lump of butter.

  4. Dust with coarse sea salt and roast for 15 minutes or until done.

Serve

  1. Serve on a piece of hot buttered toast or a bread canape.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Quail + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together512 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Quail + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together151 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Quail
The main protein, which cooks quickly and stays tender when roasted briefly at high heat.
Fat bacon
Bastes the lean breast meat as it renders, adding moisture and savoury flavour.
Butter
Adds moisture and richness and helps the skin brown as it cooks.

The step that matters

Roast until done, without overcooking. Quail is small and lean, so it can dry out quickly. Roasting in a hot oven for a short time and checking doneness keeps the breast meat moist while the skin browns.

“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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