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Partridges and Cabbage

A stew of partridges, cabbage, onions, herbs, and bacon, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Partridges and Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the partridges by drawing in their legs and placing any trimmings in a stew pan.

  2. Add stock, onions, herbs, bay leaves, and mace to the pan.

  3. Place the partridges in the pan and cover them with bacon.

  4. Boil the savoy cabbage for a few minutes until half done, then cool it in cold water.

  5. Squeeze the cabbage dry, tie it into four bundles, and add to the stew pan with the partridges.

Cook

  1. Pour in the wine, cover, and simmer on low heat for about an hour.

  2. Once cooked, remove the partridges and cabbage, and strain the cooking liquid.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a separate pan, melt butter, add flour to thicken, then stir in the strained liquid and boil for a few minutes.

  2. Serve the partridges on a dish with the cabbage arranged around them, garnished with carrots, and pour the sauce over the top.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Cabbage + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + cabbagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Partridges
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow, gentle simmering.
Savoy cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild, sweet flavour while absorbing the savoury cooking liquid.
Flour
Thickens the strained cooking liquid into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Dry white wine
Adds acidity that brightens the braising liquid and balances the rich meat.
Bacon
Covers the birds and releases savoury fat and salt that flavour the braise.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with butter and flour. Flour must be cooked briefly in melted butter before liquid is added, otherwise it stays starchy and tastes raw. Boiling the strained liquid then lets the starch swell and thicken it evenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, cabbage, white wine, butter, flour, carrot):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, cabbage, white wine, butter, flour, carrot. 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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