Why it works: Flour and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,078 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Roast Partridge
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the birds
Choose young partridges with dark-colored bills and yellowish legs.
Let them hang for a few days for flavor and tenderness.
Pluck the partridges.
Draw the partridges.
Clean the partridges inside and out.
Cut off the head.
Leave enough skin on the neck to skewer it back.
Bring the legs close to the breast.
Skewer through the pinions and thighs.
If the head is left on, bring it around and fix it to the skewer.
Roast
Roast the trussed bird before a bright fire.
Baste it well.
A few minutes before serving, dust the bird with flour and froth it.
Serve
Serve hot with gravy poured over the bird and alongside bread sauce.
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.
-
Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,934 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,383 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and bread barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,383 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
- The main meat; its youth and short hanging give tender flesh and mild flavor.
- Flour
- Dusted on near the end, it helps the skin brown and crisp during the final minutes.
The step that matters
Baste it well. Lean game birds dry out quickly over direct heat. Regular basting with fat moistens the surface, keeps the meat juicy, and helps the skin 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.
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
White Bread80 recipes
Bread Omelette60 recipes
Oatmeal Bread51 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.