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Pickled Partridges or Pigeons

Pickled partridges or pigeons larded with ham or tongue, seasoned, boiled, then pickled in Madeira wine and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pickled Partridges or Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the birds

  1. Bone the birds and lard them with ham or tongue on the inner side.

  2. Rub plenty of spices into the birds and truss them as desired.

  3. Plunge the birds into boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then drain and dry them.

Pickle

  1. In a pot, boil equal parts Madeira wine and vinegar with pepper, nutmeg, and bruised bay leaves.

  2. Add the birds and simmer for 20 minutes.

  3. Remove the birds and boil the pickle for a little longer, skimming as needed.

Store

  1. Once everything is cold, transfer to stone jars and cover securely.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Ham + madeira winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together154 recipes
  4. Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  5. Madeira wine + nutmegtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together265 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges or pigeons
Provide the lean meat that is cooked and preserved in the pickle.
Ham or tongue
Larding adds fat and savoury flavour to the lean birds as they cook.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and aroma to the pickling liquid.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that flavours the pickle and helps preserve the birds.
Bay leaves
Contribute a subtle herbal aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Plunging the birds in boiling water. Only 2-3 minutes is given, so the birds must be dipped briefly and then dried well. Overcooking firms the meat and a wet surface dilutes the pickle and weakens its hold on the flesh.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, madeira wine, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, madeira wine, vinegar, pepper. 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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