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Partridges, a LA Seville

Partridges cooked with ham, onions, carrots, herbs, Madeira wine, tomato paste, and Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Partridges, a LA Seville

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Truss the partridges as for boiling.

  2. Fry the partridges in butter until light brown, then set them aside on a plate.

  3. Cut the ham into small olive-shaped pieces.

  4. Cut the carrots with a round scoop.

  5. Fry the ham, carrots, and button onions until light brown.

Braise

  1. Return the partridges to the stewpan with the fried ingredients.

  2. Add the faggot of herbs.

  3. Season with salt and cayenne.

  4. Moisten with wine and tomato paste.

  5. Cover the stewpan.

  6. Simmer gently for 45 minutes, reducing the liquid by half.

Finish and serve

  1. Dish the partridges in a triangular form.

  2. Skim off excess grease.

  3. Add Espagnole sauce and lemon juice.

  4. Boil together for 2 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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  4. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 becomes tender and flavourful during slow simmering.
Fresh butter
Browns the partridges and vegetables, adding richness and savoury flavour to the dish.
Raw ham
Adds salty, savoury depth to the braising liquid as it fries and simmers.
Madeira or malaga wine
Moistens the braise and, reducing, concentrates flavour and adds gentle sweetness.
Espagnole sauce
Thickens and enriches the reduced cooking liquid into a full-bodied sauce.
Tomato paste
Adds concentrated acidity and savoury depth, and colour, to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Browning the partridges in butter. Frying until light brown creates Maillard browning, which builds the colour and roasted flavour the sauce later depends on. Pale frying leaves the sauce tasting flat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, carrot, parsley, thyme, basil, clove):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, carrot, parsley, thyme, basil, clove. 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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