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Quail on Toast

A dish of roasted quail served on toasted bread with a browned flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Quail on Toast

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the quail

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cut the quails open down the back, season with salt and pepper, and dredge with flour.

  3. Break down the breast and back bones so they lie flat.

Cook the quail

  1. Place the quails in a pan with a little water and butter, cover tightly, and bake until nearly done.

  2. In a skillet, heat butter and fry the quails until nicely browned.

Serve on toast

  1. Toast the bread slices, slightly butter them, and place on a platter.

  2. Break the toast into pieces with a carving knife to make it tender.

  3. Place the quails on the toast and make a sauce with the pan gravy, thickening lightly with browned flour.

  4. Pour the sauce over each quail and the toast.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Quail + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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

Quails
Provide the main meat, which cooks through and browns during baking and frying.
Flour
Dredging coats the quail so it browns well and helps the surface stay crisp.
Butter
Adds fat for frying and browning, and flavor to the quail and toast.
Browned flour
Thickens the pan gravy into a light sauce with a toasty flavor.
Bread
Forms the base that soaks up the sauce and supports the quail.

The step that matters

Bake until nearly done, then fry until browned. Baking cooks the quail through gently, while frying gives color. Overcooking during the covered bake can dry the lean meat, so stop when it is nearly done.

“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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