Name: Prairie Chickens, Partridges, and Quails
Ingredients: Prairie chickens, partridges, or quails; Soda (for washing); Dressing (your choice); Cords (for binding); Butter (for basting); Parsley (for garnish); Currant jelly (for serving)

Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Prairie Chickens, Partridges, and Quails

Ingredients

Directions

Clean the birds thoroughly, using a little soda in the washing water.
Rinse and dry the birds, then fill them with dressing and sew them up securely.
Bind the legs and wings with cords.
Place the birds in a steamer over hot water and cook until just done.
Transfer to a pan with a little butter and set in the oven.
Baste frequently with melted butter until the birds are nicely browned, about 15 minutes.
Serve on a platter, garnished with sprigs of parsley and currant jelly.

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.

Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,856 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,314 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + curranttop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together308 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).