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Roast Partridges

Roast partridges with pork, butter, and consommé, served on buttered toast and garnished with watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Roast Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the birds

  1. Truss the partridges by passing a wooden skewer through the thighs and another through the wings.

  2. Place a slice of pork over the breast of each partridge.

  3. Put the partridges in a baking pan with butter and boiling water or white wine.

Roast

  1. Baste the partridges frequently.

  2. Roast the partridges in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 40 minutes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove the strings and skewers from the partridges.

  2. Place the partridges on buttered toast on a hot dish.

  3. Add consommé or broth to the pan.

  4. Boil the consommé or broth.

  5. Strain the consommé or broth.

  6. Pour the strained consommé or broth over the birds.

  7. Garnish the birds with watercress.

  8. Serve the birds with a salad.

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. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Pork + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,544 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pork + watercresstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

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

  5. White wine + watercresstop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
The main meat; roasting cooks it through while the skin and surface brown.
Pork
A slice laid over the breast bastes the lean bird with its fat as it roasts.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the birds brown and carrying flavour in the pan.
Consommé or broth
Reduced and strained in the pan, it becomes a savoury sauce that adds moisture and flavour.

The step that matters

Baste the partridges frequently. Lean game birds dry out easily in the oven. Regular basting with the pan fat and liquid keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly.

“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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