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Roast Partridge

Roast partridges served with gravy and bread sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Roast Partridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Choose young partridges with dark-colored bills and yellowish legs.

  2. Let them hang for a few days for flavor.

  3. Pluck, draw, and clean the partridges inside and out.

  4. Cut off the head, leaving enough skin on the neck to skewer it back.

  5. Bring the legs close to the breast and skewer through the pinions and thighs.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the trussed partridge before a bright fire, basting it well.

  2. A few minutes before serving, dust with flour and froth it.

  3. Serve hot with gravy and bread sauce, pouring little gravy over the bird.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Young partridges
Provide the main meat, which is tender when young and cooked whole.
Butter
Used for basting, adding moisture and richness and helping the skin brown.
Flour
Dusted on near the end to help form a light, frothed crust on the bird.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the served bird.
Bread sauce
Adds a soft, creamy contrast to the lean roasted meat.

The step that matters

Dusting with flour and frothing. Flour applied too early or to a cold bird can burn or turn pasty instead of forming a light, frothed crust. Add it only a few minutes before serving, while basting the bird well so the skin stays moist and browns 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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