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Salmi of Pheasant

A pheasant stew simmered in tomato, mushroom, and stock sauce, served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,719 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Salmi of Pheasant

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Melt ½ oz. of butter in a pan, then add the sliced mushrooms and chopped tomato.

  2. Add the pheasant joints, removing skin and loose bones, and fry for about 15 minutes.

  3. Pour in the stock and glaze, then simmer for about 20 minutes; strain the mixture.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pan, melt ½ oz. of butter and add the flour, frying until light brown.

  2. Gradually pour in the strained stock while stirring until boiling, then cool slightly.

  3. Add the pheasant joints and seasoning, then simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on a piece of fried bread and garnish with small pieces of fried bread or a puree of green peas.

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. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasant
Provides the main meat, which firms and flavours the stew as it simmers.
Flour
Thickens the sauce when fried in butter and blended into the stock.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and browns the flour for the sauce base.
Mushrooms
Add savoury, earthy depth to the stock.
Tomato
Adds acidity and body to the stock.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it cooks in the dish.

The step that matters

Adding the stock to the flour and butter. Pouring the stock in gradually while stirring keeps the roux smooth and prevents lumps. Frying the flour until light brown cooks out its raw taste and builds a nutty flavour before the liquid goes in.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, onion, butter, flour, mushroom):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, onion, butter, flour, mushroom. 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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