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Pheasant and Macaroni

A stew of shredded pheasant in a mushroom ketchup gravy served with macaroni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pheasant and Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pheasant

  1. Remove the meat from the cold roast pheasant, discarding the skin and sinews.

  2. Shred the meat into pieces about ½ inch long.

  3. Place the bones and trimmings in a saucepan, cover with water, and simmer gently until reduced.

Make the gravy

  1. Add the shallots, salt, pepper, nutmeg, mushroom ketchup, and sherry to the gravy.

  2. Thicken the gravy with flour mixed with butter and simmer for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the gravy, return it to the saucepan, and bring to a boil.

  4. Add the shredded pheasant meat and warm through without boiling.

Cook and finish the macaroni

  1. In a separate pot, add macaroni to boiling water with a little salt and pepper.

  2. Simmer the macaroni for 20 minutes, then drain.

  3. Return the macaroni to the saucepan with stock, salt, mustard, nutmeg, cayenne, and pepper.

  4. Boil until the macaroni is tender.

  5. Stir in Parmesan and butter, simmer for an additional 15 minutes, shaking the pan to mix well.

  6. Serve the pheasant in the center of a hot dish surrounded by the macaroni.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Pheasant + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the stock and butter as it simmers.
Pheasant meat
Provides the main savoury meat flavour and substance of the dish.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the pheasant and clings to the macaroni.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the gravy and macaroni.
Parmesan
Adds savoury, salty depth and helps the macaroni turn creamy and clingy.
Stock
Adds savoury liquid that the macaroni absorbs to become moist and flavourful.

The step that matters

Warm the pheasant without boiling. Boiling toughens cooked meat and dries it out, so the shredded pheasant should only be heated gently in the hot gravy.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, meat, shallot, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, 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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