Why it works: Pheasant and orange work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Pheasants-pigeons
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pheasant
Insert a fork into the center of the breast and cut deep slices to the bone.
Remove the legs and wings carefully, avoiding the neck bone.
Detach the marrow by cutting under it towards the neck.
Roast and serve
Roast the pheasant with the head on, securing it under the wing with a skewer.
For pigeons, insert a knife at the breast and cut both ways to divide into portions.
If small, serve pigeons whole; if larger, cut in halves.
Garnish with halved oranges.
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.
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Pheasant + orangetop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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