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Roasted Quails

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Quail and pork work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 308 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Roasted Quails

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. Pluck, singe, and draw the quails. Wipe them with a wet towel, then cut off the heads and feet.

  2. Wrap each quail in a slice of fat salted pork and pack them closely in a saucepan.

  3. Season the quails with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper, then pour boiling water over them to cover.

  4. Cover the saucepan and place it on a hot fire for 5 to 10 minutes.

  5. Remove the quails, discard the pork, and wipe the birds with a clean towel.

  6. Rub the quails all over with butter and roast them until browned in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C), basting twice with more butter and their drippings.

  7. Meanwhile, strain the gravy from the saucepan and melt it with an equal quantity of red currant jelly to form a sauce.

  8. Serve the quails hot as soon as they are browned, with the sauce or cold red 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.

  1. Quail + porktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together308 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Pepper + red curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together267 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

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

  4. Quail + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together512 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

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

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, pork, pepper, butter):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Grapefits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, pork, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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