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Partridges, Hashed, or Salmi De Perdrix

Roasted partridges served with a mushroom, ham, and herb gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Partridges, Hashed, or Salmi De Perdrix

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the partridges

  1. Pluck and draw the partridges, then roast them slightly underdone and cover with paper to prevent browning.

  2. Cut the partridges into joints and remove the skin from the wings, legs, and breasts.

  3. Place the joints in a stewpan and set aside until the gravy is ready.

Make the gravy

  1. In another stewpan, lightly fry the diced ham, sliced carrot, shallots, mushrooms, herbs, cloves, and pepper in a little butter.

  2. Pour in the stock, add the bones and trimmings from the partridges, and simmer for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the gravy, let it cool, and skim off any fat before serving.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Shallot + carrottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together803 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Provide the main meat, which stays moist when roasted only slightly underdone.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the gravy, carrying flavour from the bones and vegetables.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the flavour base of the gravy.
Shallots
Contribute a mild, sweet onion flavour as they soften in butter.
Mushrooms
Add earthy, savoury flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Roasting the partridges slightly underdone. Birds cooked past done quickly become dry and tough, and they will finish cooking as they are simmered in the gravy, so pulling them early keeps the meat tender.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, ham, mushroom, clove, sherry, sugar):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, ham, mushroom, clove, sherry, 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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