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Partridge Broiled

A partridge roasted over a clear fire, seasoned with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper, served with butter and mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Partridge Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the partridge until it is no longer offensive.

  2. Split the partridge and remove all moisture with a soft, clean cloth.

Cook and serve

  1. Place it on a gridiron over a clear fire.

  2. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper over it.

  3. Cook for 20 minutes.

  4. Rub a little butter over the partridge before serving.

  5. Serve with 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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,480 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 after splitting so it cooks evenly over the fire.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the finished bird when rubbed over it before serving.
Mushroom sauce
Adds a savoury, moist accompaniment that complements the mild, lean meat.

The step that matters

Removing moisture from the partridge before cooking. Drying the split bird with a clean cloth helps the surface brown rather than steam over the fire, giving a better crust and more even cooking.

“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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