Why it works: Sherry and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,273 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Salmi, Hunter's
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the game
Divide the pheasant or partridge into neat joints.
Remove the skin and sinews from the pieces.
Make and heat the sauce
Place the pieces in a saucepan and pour over the Lucca oil and sherry or Madeira.
Add the lemon juice, grated rind, salt, and cayenne.
Heat slowly over a gentle fire until hot through, then drain and serve with fried sippets.
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.
-
Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,273 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Pheasant + sherrytop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
-
Pheasant + lemontop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together163 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Roasted pheasant or partridge
- Provides the main meat, which is gently reheated so it stays moist and tender.
- Lucca oil
- Adds fat and richness that carries the flavour of the sauce and coats the meat.
- Sherry or madeira
- Adds sweetness and depth of flavour that balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich oil and game.
The step that matters
Heat slowly over a gentle fire until hot through. Roasted game is already cooked, so high heat would toughen the meat and could break or separate the oil-based sauce. Gentle heat warms the joints evenly and keeps the sauce smooth.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, sherry):
- Applefits better
- Apricotfits better
- Plumfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, sherry. 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.
You might also like
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Pheasant Soup25 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.