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Quails, with Stewed Peas

A dish of boiled quails served with stewed peas and Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,885 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Quails, with Stewed Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Braise

  1. Truss the quails like chickens for boiling.

  2. Place them in a stewpan with streaky bacon and a bunch of parsley.

  3. Cover with thin layers of bacon.

  4. Moisten with wine mirepoix.

  5. Braise gently for about 45 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Prepare stewed peas.

  2. Finish with reduced mirepoix.

  3. Dish the quails in a circle with breasts outwards.

  4. Fill the center with stewed peas.

  5. Place a piece of bacon between each quail.

  6. Pour Espagnole sauce around and over the dish.

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 + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,885 recipes

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

  2. Wine + peastop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Quail + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together130 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Quail + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together153 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  5. Parsley + winetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Quails
The main protein; gentle braising keeps the lean meat moist and tender.
Streaky bacon
Fat that bastes the birds and adds savory, smoky flavor during cooking.
Wine mirepoix
Wine adds acidity and moisture, while the vegetables build aromatic flavor in the braising liquid.
Espagnole sauce
A reduced brown sauce that adds body, richness and savory depth to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Braise gently for about 45 minutes. Gentle, low heat lets connective tissue soften slowly while the lean quail meat stays moist. A hard boil tightens the proteins and leaves the meat dry and tough.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, parsley, wine, sauce):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, parsley, wine, sauce. 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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