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Pheasant, Stewed, with Cabbage

A stew of pheasant and cabbage with bacon, sausages, herbs, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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, Stewed, with Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Soak the cabbage quarters in salted water for 1 hour, then cut off the stalks.

  2. Plunge the cabbage into boiling water and boil for 10 minutes, then drain and press out excess water.

Braise

  1. In a large stewpan, place the cabbage and bury the pheasants in it.

  2. Add the bacon, Bologna sausages, pork sausages, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, carrots, onion, and pepper.

  3. Pour in enough stock to just cover the ingredients, cover the stewpan, and bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and let simmer gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  5. Remove the pheasants and sausages, keeping them warm in a 300°F (150°C) oven.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain the cabbage, season with salt and pepper, and stir over heat until dry.

  2. Serve the cabbage on a dish, place the pheasants on top, and arrange the bacon, sausages, and sliced carrots around them.

  3. Serve with brown sauce or poivrade sauce in a tureen.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasants
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender as it simmers gently in the stock.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs savoury flavour from the stock and meats.
Streaky bacon
Adds fat and salty, smoky flavour that seasons the stock and cabbage.
Pork sausages
Add fat and richness, enriching the stock as they cook.
Carrots
Contribute gentle sweetness and colour to the stewed broth.

The step that matters

Stir the drained cabbage over heat until dry. Excess water left in the cabbage dilutes its flavour and makes it soggy; drying it over heat concentrates the taste and gives a better texture before serving.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, pork, parsley, thyme, carrot, onion, clove. 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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