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Pheasant Soup

A savory soup made with pheasant, ham, vegetables, spices, stock, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Pheasant Soup

Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Pheasant Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Roast the pheasant

  1. Flour the pheasant thickly and roast it over a brisk fire for 15 minutes, basting frequently.

  2. Remove the pheasant from the fire and let it cool slightly.

  3. Remove the flesh from the breast and upper wings, skin it, and set aside.

  4. Cut up the rest of the bird and bruise the bones.

Make the soup

  1. In a stewpan, combine the carrot, butter, minced ham, thyme, bay leaf, parsley, mace, cloves, peppercorns, shallot, and celery.

  2. Stir the mixture over gentle heat until browned.

  3. Add the pheasant flesh and bruised bones, then pour in the stock.

  4. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 30 minutes, skimming off any scum.

  5. Strain the soup and rub the meat through a sieve.

  6. Mix the puree with the soup, adding cayenne, salt, sherry, and the sliced pheasant fillets.

  7. Heat until hot and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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
Provides the main meat and, with its bones, the body and flavour of the soup.
Flour
Coats the pheasant so it browns well during roasting.
Butter
Fat that cooks the vegetables gently and carries their aroma into the soup.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the base of the soup.
Stock
Forms the liquid body of the soup and carries the flavour of the meat and vegetables.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a sweet, aromatic note to finish the soup.

The step that matters

Skimming while the soup simmers. Scum rises from the meat and bones as the stock heats. Removing it keeps the soup clear and stops bitter or muddy flavours from spreading through the liquid.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, flour, carrot, butter, ham, thyme, parsley):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, flour, carrot, butter, ham, thyme, parsley. 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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