Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Grouse Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the grouse
Split the grouse in half, remove the wing bones, and tuck the legs inside.
Season the grouse with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Fry and make the sauce
Fry the grouse in a little hot butter until browned on both sides.
Dredge a little flour into the butter.
Gradually add ¼ pint of Espagnole gravy and season with salt and cayenne.
Simmer for 10 minutes, then serve with the gravy poured over the grouse.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Grouse
- Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is browned and simmered until tender.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and pan juices, helping the gravy cling to the grouse.
- Butter
- Conducts heat for frying and carries flavour, helping the grouse brown richly.
- Gravy espagnole
- Supplies the liquid and savoury depth that forms the sauce served over the grouse.
The step that matters
Browning the grouse in hot butter. The grouse must brown well on both sides before the gravy is added. Browning triggers the Maillard reaction, which builds savoury flavour and colour that the sauce then builds on.
“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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