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Roast Partridges

Roast Partridges are partridges roasted with bacon, butter, and seasonings, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,933 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Roast Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bind the slices of fat pork or bacon over the breasts of the partridges.

  2. Place the partridges in a roaster with the boiling water.

  3. Season the birds with salt and pepper, then brush with melted butter.

Roast and serve

  1. Cover and cook for 45 minutes, basting four times with butter and water.

  2. Serve with bread sauce and pour several spoonfuls of gravy from the pan over the birds.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Provide the main meat, which cooks through gently under cover.
Fat salt pork or bacon
Lays fat over the breasts, keeping the lean meat moist as it roasts.
Melted butter
Adds fat for browning and flavour on the skin during basting.
Boiling water
Creates steam and pan liquid that keeps the birds moist and makes the gravy.

The step that matters

Cover and cook for 45 minutes, basting four times with butter and water.. Lean game birds dry out easily. Covering traps steam, and regular basting with fat and liquid keeps the surface moist and gives even colour.

“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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