Why it works: Pheasant and sauce work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 290 recipes. Both carry decanoic acid, which smells soapy, waxy. The science ↓
Pintail, or Sea Pheasant
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
Season the pintail with coarse sea salt.
Roast and serve
Roast the bird in the oven for about 30 minutes, basting it constantly.
After 25 minutes, remove it from the oven and let it rest in front of the fire for a few minutes.
Serve immediately with brown gravy and a piquant sauce.
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.
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Pheasant + saucetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together290 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pintail
- Is the main protein, cooked by dry heat until the meat is done.
- Brown gravy
- Adds moisture and savory flavor to the served bird.
The step that matters
Basting the bird constantly while it roasts. Basting spreads melted fat and juices over the surface, which keeps the skin from drying out and helps it brown evenly as the heat drives off moisture.
“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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