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Quails, Boned and Stuffed

Quails stuffed with liver forcemeat, baked, served on rice with brown sauce and sherry, garnished with watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Quail and watercress work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Quails, Boned and Stuffed

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Bone the quails without opening them, working the knife from the neck.

  2. Fill the quails with liver forcemeat using a piping bag.

  3. Truss the quails and wrap them in buttered paper.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake on a buttered baking sheet in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Serve the quails whole on a bed of rice.

  3. Mask with good brown sauce flavored with sherry and garnish with watercress.

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. Quail + watercresstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Rice + watercresstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together59 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Quail + ricetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Quails
Provide the main meat, which stays whole and holds the forcemeat filling during cooking.
Liver forcemeat
Adds moisture and rich flavor to the lean quail meat as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the paper and baking sheet prevent sticking and drying.
Rice
Forms a bed that soaks up the juices and sauce beneath the quails.
Brown sauce
Adds savory depth and moisture over the finished quails.

The step that matters

Bake on a buttered baking sheet in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C).. Quail is very lean and cooks quickly, so high heat sets the outside and browns it while the filling stays moist. Overcooking dries the meat and toughens the forcemeat.

“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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