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Broiled Prairie Hek, or Partridge

A whole prairie hen or partridge roasted and basted, served with a parsley‑lemon butter and mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Broiled Prairie Hek, or Partridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and grill

  1. Clean and prepare the bird. Split the back and butter it all over.

  2. Place the bird on a hot grill and turn several times to prevent burning. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on size.

  3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper just before done.

  4. While cooking, mix parsley, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of butter for the maitre d'hotel butter.

Serve

  1. Put the maitre d'hotel butter on a hot dish.

  2. Lay the bird on paper to absorb excess grease.

  3. Place it on the dish and garnish with parsley.

Alternative method

  1. For an alternative method, split the bird in half lengthwise. Melt butter the size of an egg in a pan over medium heat. Add the birds and cook until half done, turning 3 to 4 times. Transfer to a grill and cook for 15 minutes.

  2. In the same pan, add parsley, mushrooms, salt, pepper, flour, white wine, and broth. Stir and boil until slightly thick.

  3. Serve the birds on the sauce or with mayonnaise sauce.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Prairie hen or partridge
Is the main protein, cooked whole or split so it cooks through and browns.
Butter
Basts the bird for moisture and browning, and forms the maitre d'hotel butter for richness.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the pan sauce as it reduces.
Flour
Thickens the pan sauce slightly as it cooks with the liquids.
Mushrooms
Adds earthy flavour and body to the pan sauce.

The step that matters

Turning the bird on the hot grill. Frequent turning on high heat spreads the heat evenly and prevents the skin and fats from burning before the meat is cooked through.

“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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