Skip to main content
Main

Grouse, to Hash

A hash of grouse cooked with shallots, butter, stock, mace, and claret, served with toasted sippets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Shallot and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,081 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Grouse, to Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. In a saucepan, combine the skins, bones, and trimmings of the grouse with the sliced shallots and butter.

  2. Shake the pan over medium heat until the butter is melted and lightly browned.

  3. Add the stock, salt, pepper, and pounded mace, then cover and simmer gently for 1 hour.

  4. Strain the gravy and return it to the saucepan with the claret.

Heat and serve

  1. Bring to a boil, then add the pieces of grouse and heat until hot.

  2. Serve immediately with toasted sippets around the dish, ensuring the gravy does not boil after adding the grouse.

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 + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Shallot + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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
Provides the meat and flavour base; the carcass trimmings build the gravy's body.
Butter
Carries flavour and, rolled in flour, thickens the gravy while adding richness.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet onion-like aroma that deepens as they cook in butter.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour that brightens the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Keep the gravy from boiling once the grouse is added. Boiling toughens the cooked meat and can make the gravy break or taste harsh, so the grouse should only be heated through gently.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, butter, flour, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes