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Larks, Stewed

A stew of larks cooked with bacon, mushrooms, stock, sherry, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Larks, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the larks

  1. Fry the larks with the bacon in a pan until lightly browned.

  2. Dredge a little flour over the larks.

Stew

  1. Add the sliced mushrooms, pepper, and salt.

  2. Adjust salt based on the bacon's condition.

  3. Pour in the stock and sherry.

  4. Simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  5. Stir in the minced parsley.

  6. Boil for 1 minute.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot dish.

  2. Garnish with toasted sippets.

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

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

  2. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Larks
The main ingredient, browned first, then stewed until tender in the sauce.
Fat bacon
Renders fat for browning the larks and adds a savory, smoky flavor to the dish.
Mushrooms
Release moisture into the stew and add earthy flavor to the sauce.
Flour (in the method)
Lightly coats the larks and helps thicken the cooking liquid.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a rich aroma that balances the fat and the stock.
Stock
Forms the braising liquid that cooks the larks and carries the flavors.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 15 minutes. A gentle simmer cooks the small birds through and keeps the meat tender, while a hard boil can toughen it and make the sauce reduce unevenly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, pepper, sherry):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, pepper, sherry. 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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