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Partridges, Pheasants, Pigeons, or Grouse Panned

A method of baking game birds with pork slices, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pheasant and pork work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 240 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Partridges, Pheasants, Pigeons, or Grouse Panned

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Dress the birds and split them down the back.

  2. Wipe them carefully with a wet cloth.

  3. Lay the birds in a deep pan and place a slice of pork on each breast.

Bake

  1. Pour in ½ cup boiling water and add salt, pepper, and butter.

  2. Cover tightly.

  3. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for 25 to 30 minutes, basting frequently.

  4. Check if done by pressing with a broad knife; the flesh should be firm.

Serve

  1. Serve with the gravy on buttered toast and accompany with a salad.

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. Pheasant + porktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together240 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pheasant + peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together462 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  5. Pheasant + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together511 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Birds
Provide the main meat, which cooks gently in the covered pan to stay moist.
Slices of pork
Laid over the breasts, they add fat that bastes the lean meat as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the pan juices that form the gravy.

The step that matters

Checking doneness by pressing the flesh. Lean game birds dry out quickly in heat, so overcooking toughens the meat. Firm flesh under a broad knife signals the birds are ready to come out of the oven.

“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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