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Boiled Partridge with Cream Sauce

A boiled partridge served with a cream and butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Boiled Partridge with Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the birds

  1. Pluck the partridges.

  2. Singe the partridges.

  3. Draw the partridges without breaking the entrails.

  4. Wipe them with a wet towel.

Boil

  1. Place the partridges in boiling water to cover.

  2. Add the salt to the water.

  3. Boil gently for 15 minutes.

Make the cream sauce

  1. Combine the cream, butter, and white pepper in a saucepan over boiling water.

  2. Stir until the butter melts.

  3. Keep the sauce hot.

Serve

  1. Place the partridges on a hot dish.

  2. Dry the partridges with a soft cloth.

  3. Pour the cream sauce over the partridges.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + white peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,439 recipes
  3. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Provide the main lean meat, which cooks gently in simmering water to stay tender.
Thick cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, giving it a smooth, coating texture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the sauce and helps it become smooth and glossy.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 15 minutes. Boiling vigorously can toughen the meat and break the birds apart. A gentle simmer cooks the partridges through while keeping the flesh tender and moist.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Macefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter. 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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