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Pheasant, Stewed

A whole pheasant stewed in stock with carrot, onion, celery, parsley, peppercorns, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pheasant, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pluck and draw the pheasant, then truss it like a fowl for boiling.

  2. Place the pheasant in a saucepan and cover it with hot stock or water.

  3. Add the carrot, onion, celery, parsley, peppercorns, and salt.

Stew and serve

  1. Bring the liquid to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Reduce the heat and let it simmer gently until the pheasant is cooked through, about 45 minutes or more depending on size.

  3. Serve the pheasant with celery sauce poured over it and the rest in a tureen.

  4. Garnish with potato croquettes.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasant
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it simmers slowly in liquid.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aroma to the stewing liquid as it cooks down.
Onion
Contributes savoury depth and aroma to the stock as it simmers.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic background flavour to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming the boil. Scum rising as the liquid comes to a boil contains coagulated proteins and impurities. Removing it keeps the stock clear and prevents a cloudy, off-tasting broth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, carrot, clove, celery, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, carrot, clove, celery, 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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