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Broiled Partridge

A roasted partridge served with a brown mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Broiled Partridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the partridge

  1. Split the partridge and wipe it inside and out without washing.

  2. Broil it delicately over a clear fire, sprinkling with salt and cayenne.

  3. Rub fresh butter over it immediately after removing from the fire.

Make the sauce

  1. Brown flour in a slice of butter.

  2. Add water, cayenne, salt, and mushroom ketchup to the browned flour.

Coat and finish

  1. Dip the dressed partridge in clarified butter.

  2. Dip the partridge in bread crumbs.

  3. Broil gently for 20 to 30 minutes.

  4. Serve with brown mushroom sauce.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Partridge
Is the main protein, cooked whole in halves over direct heat.
Flour
Browned in butter to thicken the sauce and give it a nutty flavour.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savoury, umami flavour to the sauce.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the bird.
Clarified butter
Carries heat evenly and helps the crumbs adhere and brown.

The step that matters

Broil gently for 20 to 30 minutes. Lean game birds dry out quickly under strong heat. Gentle, steady heat cooks the meat through while the crumb coating browns slowly without burning.

“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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