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Broiled Quail with Cream Sauce

Broiled quail served with a cream sauce flavored with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Broiled Quail with Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the quail with salt and pepper.

  2. Rub the quail inside and out with olive oil.

  3. Let the quail stand for 30 minutes.

Broil

  1. Place the quail on a hot broiler.

  2. Broil the quail slowly until fully cooked.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer the quail to a hot covered dish.

  2. Place butter between each bird.

  3. Pour the cream over the quail.

  4. Sprinkle the quail with parsley.

  5. Cover the dish tightly.

  6. Let the dish sit in a warm place for about 15 minutes before serving.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Quail
Forms the main protein; slow broiling cooks it through while keeping the meat moist.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture as it melts over the birds and into the sauce.
Cream
Makes the pan sauce richer and smoother, giving the birds a creamy coating.
Olive oil
Coats the skin so it browns evenly under the broiler and keeps the meat from drying.

The step that matters

Broil the quail slowly until fully cooked. Broiling at high heat can scorch the outside before the thick meat near the bone is cooked through. Slow, controlled heat and a hot but not searing position let the heat reach the centre evenly, so the birds cook through without drying out.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

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

“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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