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Partridges, Braised, with Cabbage

Braised partridges served with cabbage and a butter‑flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Partridges, Braised, with Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the partridges and cabbage

  1. Pluck the partridges.

  2. Draw the partridges.

  3. Truss them for boiling.

  4. Cover them with bacon slices tied securely with twine.

  5. Wash the cabbages.

  6. Boil them uncovered for 15 minutes.

  7. Drain them thoroughly.

Braise

  1. Slice the carrot, onion, and celery into a stewpan.

  2. Add butter, sugar, pepper, nutmeg, and salt.

  3. Layer cabbage over the vegetables.

  4. Place the partridges on top.

  5. Cover with the remaining cabbage.

  6. Pour in enough stock to cover everything.

  7. Simmer gently until the partridges are cooked, moistening with gravy as needed.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Serve the partridges on the bacon with cabbage around them.

  2. For the gravy, mix butter and flour in a pan over heat for 3 minutes.

  3. Add stock and boil for 10 minutes.

  4. Strain the gravy into a tureen and serve immediately.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow simmering in liquid.
Cabbage
Absorbs the braising liquid and flavour while becoming soft and sweet.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that bastes the birds as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the braise and gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy by binding with butter and stock.
Stock
Supplies the cooking liquid that gently moistens and flavours the dish.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the partridges are cooked. A gentle simmer keeps the meat tender and moist. Vigorous boiling toughens muscle fibres and can break up the cabbage, so the birds should cook at a low, steady bubble.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, carrot, celery, butter, sugar, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, carrot, celery, butter, sugar, pepper, nutmeg. 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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