Name: Roast Pheasants with Cress
Ingredients: 1 pheasant; 1 piece of slitted bacon; Coarse sea salt (to taste); Watercress (for garnish); Browned breadcrumbs (for serving); Bread sauce (for serving); Gravy prepared from game bones (for serving); Butter (for toast); 1 slice of bread (for toast)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Roast Pheasants with Cress

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Hang the pheasant by the beak in a cold, dry, airy place for about four days to develop flavor.
Pluck the bird and remove the crop by making an incision in the back of the neck without breaking the skin.
Remove the entrails by cutting the vent slightly; do not wash the bird.
Singe the bird.
Truss the bird for roasting.
Tie the slitted bacon over the breast.

Roast and serve

Roast the pheasant in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 to 20 minutes, basting frequently.
Transfer the cooked bird to a piece of trimmed and buttered toast or crouton.
Garnish the bird with watercress.
Serve with browned breadcrumbs, bread sauce, and gravy on the side.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pheasant + watercresstop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together23 recipes

Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Watercress + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together307 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pheasant + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together239 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sauce and butter 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

Pheasant: Forms the main protein of the dish, cooking to tender meat when roasted with care.
Bacon: Tied over the breast, it bastes the lean meat with fat as it renders during roasting.
Bread sauce: Served alongside, it adds a creamy, mildly thickened contrast to the lean roasted meat.
Butter: Spread on the toast, it adds richness and helps the toast brown and taste savoury.

The step that matters

Roast the pheasant in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 to 20 minutes, basting frequently. Pheasant breast is very lean and dries out quickly at high heat. Frequent basting with fat and close timing keep the meat moist while the skin and surface brown.

“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.