Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓
To Truss and Roast a Partridge or Pheasant
Ingredients
Directions
Hang the partridge for a few days.
Pluck and draw the bird, then wipe it clean.
Cut off the head, leaving enough skin on the neck to skewer it back.
Bring the legs close to the breast and pass a skewer through the pinions and thick part of the thighs.
Roast the bird until cooked through.
Serve with fried bread crumbs, bread sauce, and gravy in tureens.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pheasant + breadtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together239 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Pheasant + saucetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together290 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
Butter and sauce 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
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