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Wild Fowl, Truffled Saute of

A sauté of wild birds cooked in a sauce of port wine, broth, herbs and truffles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Wild Fowl, Truffled Saute of

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine the heads, necks, giblets, ham, sheep's melt, shallots, mushrooms, truffle parings, herbs, mace, allspice, and 1 tablespoon of butter.

  2. Fry until the ham is brown.

  3. Add the port wine and broth.

  4. Stew and reduce for 2 hours.

  5. Season the sauce.

  6. Strain the sauce.

Cook the birds and serve

  1. In another stewpan, melt the remaining butter.

  2. Fry the limbs of the birds until colored on all sides.

  3. Dredge the limbs with flour.

  4. Pour the strained sauce over the limbs.

  5. Add the sliced truffles and simmer gently for 10 minutes.

  6. Squeeze in the lemon juice.

  7. Serve on a hot dish.

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. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw birds
Provide the main meat, which is browned and then simmered in the sauce to become tender.
Sheep's melt
Adds richness and fat that carries the savoury flavour of the sauce.
Flour
Dredged onto the limbs to lightly thicken the sauce as it cooks.
Truffles
Contribute a strong earthy aroma to the finished sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth, and reduces to concentrate the sauce's flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Strain the sauce before adding the birds. Straining removes the solids from the reduced stock so the sauce is smooth and clear. Skipping it leaves bits that cloud the sauce and make the texture gritty.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, shallot, mushroom, truffle, parsley, thyme, allspice):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, shallot, mushroom, truffle, parsley, thyme, allspice. 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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