Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Partridge and Prairie Hen
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean and prepare the partridge or prairie hen as you would for poultry.
Split the back of the bird to open it and butter it well.
Grill
Place it on a greased gridiron over a good fire, turning it three or four times.
Before removing from the fire, sprinkle with salt, pepper, allspice, and chopped parsley.
Alternatively, split the bird lengthwise into two pieces.
Melt butter in a stewpan over a good fire and add the partridges.
Cook until just over half done, turning three or four times, then remove from heat.
Wrap in buttered paper and grill for about 15 minutes.
Make the sauce and serve
For the sauce, combine remaining butter, chopped parsley, mushrooms, salt, pepper, allspice, flour, white wine, and broth in the pan used for the partridges.
Boil gently until thickened and serve the partridges on the sauce.
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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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,289 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Butter
- Enriches the bird's surface and helps it brown while keeping the meat moist.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and flavour to the sauce as it reduces.
- Broth
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it boils.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce when it is boiled gently.
The step that matters
Cook until just over half done before wrapping. Partridge is lean and dries out quickly. Stopping at just over half done lets the bird finish gently in buttered paper, so the meat stays moist rather than overcooked.
Swap the allspice
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, parsley, white wine, flour):
- Thymefits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Allspicethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, parsley, white wine, flour. 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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