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Fricassee of Grouse

A dish of grouse or rabbit pieces simmered in a butter and flour gravy, served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fricassee of Grouse

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Heat the strained broth in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the butter and flour until combined.

  3. Season well and add the pieces of grouse or rabbit.

  4. Simmer until very hot.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the meat and arrange it on buttered toast.

  2. Add the beaten yolks to the gravy.

  3. Heat for one minute.

  4. Pour over the birds.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + rabbittop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  3. Butter + rabbittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Strained broth
Forms the liquid base of the gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a gravy.
Grouse or rabbit
Provides the main meat and flavour of the dish.
Beaten egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the gravy when gently heated.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten yolks. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can scramble if the gravy is too hot or boils. Add them off the boil, stir steadily, and heat only briefly so the sauce stays smooth.

“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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