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Pheasant, Potted

A pheasant roasted, cooled, and stored in clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pheasant, Potted

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pheasant

  1. Pluck, draw, and singe the pheasant, then cut off its head.

  2. Season the inside and outside with salt, cayenne, and nutmeg.

Bake

  1. Place the pheasant breast down in a dish and pour melted butter over it.

  2. Cover the dish with a paste made of flour and water.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about one hour.

  4. Remove from the oven and drain the butter.

Pot and store

  1. Let the pheasant cool, then place it breast down in a pot and cover with clarified butter.

  2. Once the butter is set, cover with paper and store in a cool place.

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

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

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pheasant + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together225 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 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

Pheasant
Is the main ingredient that is cooked, then preserved under butter.
Butter
Moistens the bird during baking and, once clarified and set, seals it for storage.
Flour and water paste
Forms a sealed crust over the dish that holds in heat and moisture while baking.
Cayenne pepper
Adds gentle heat that seasons the meat throughout.

The step that matters

Let the pheasant cool before potting. Placing the bird in clarified butter while it is still warm can keep the butter from setting properly, so the seal may not protect the meat in storage.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, pepper, butter, flour. 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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