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Broiled Quail

Broiled quail served on buttered toast with cresses garnish and salad.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Broiled Quail

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and grill the quail

  1. Pluck, clean, and split the quail, wiping with a damp cloth.

  2. Heat the grill and place the quail bone side down.

  3. Rub the quail breasts with butter.

  4. Broil the quail for about 8 minutes.

  5. Turn the quail breast side down.

  6. Broil for about 5 more minutes.

  7. Do not let them scorch or dry out.

Make the toast

  1. Trim the crusts from the bread slices.

  2. Moisten the toast with boiling broth.

  3. Butter the toast generously.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the quail on top of the toast.

  2. Butter the quail breasts again.

  3. Sprinkle the breasts with pepper and salt.

  4. Set in the oven for 1 minute to melt the butter.

  5. Garnish with cresses.

  6. Serve 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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Quail + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together512 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Quail + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together151 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Quail + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

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

What each ingredient does

Quail
Provides the lean meat that is cooked quickly under high heat to brown the surface.
Butter
Adds fat for browning and richness, and helps keep the lean breast meat moist.
Bread
Forms a base that soaks up meat juices and butter beneath the quail.
Boiling broth
Moistens the toast so it softens and absorbs flavor from the quail.

The step that matters

Turn and broil without letting the quail scorch or dry out. Quail breast is very lean, so intense heat can quickly toughen and dry the meat while the surface browns. Watching the timing after turning keeps the meat tender and juicy.

“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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