Name: Roast Pheasant with Mushrooms
Ingredients: 1 Pheasant; 2 oz Butter; 12 Mushrooms; ½ teaspoon Salt; a few grains Cayenne; some fat Bacon for larding; 1 oz Butter (for stuffing); Gravy ingredients: Livers of the Birds, 1 oz Butter, 1 oz Flour, 1 saltspoonful Salt, Sugar, Mustard, 1 tablespoon Ketchup, 1 pint Stock; Bread Sauce ingredients: 1 pint Milk, 2 Cloves, 1 small teacup fine Bread crumbs, ½ teaspoon Salt, pinch of white Pepper, 1 small Onion, 1 teaspoon Butter, 1 tablespoon Cream

Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Roast Pheasant with Mushrooms

Ingredients

1 Pheasant
2 oz Butter
12 Mushrooms
½ teaspoon Salt
a few grains Cayenne
some fat Bacon for larding
1 oz Butter (for stuffing)
Gravy ingredients: Livers of the Birds, 1 oz Butter, 1 oz Flour, 1 saltspoonful Salt, Sugar, Mustard, 1 tablespoon Ketchup, 1 pint Stock
Bread Sauce ingredients: 1 pint Milk, 2 Cloves, 1 small teacup fine Bread crumbs, ½ teaspoon Salt, pinch of white Pepper, 1 small Onion, 1 teaspoon Butter, 1 tablespoon Cream

Directions

Prepare the pheasant

Prepare the pheasant as usual, then lard it along each side of the breast with small pieces of bacon.
Wash and skin the mushrooms; if large, cut them into halves or quarters.
Stuff the pheasant with the mushrooms, 1 oz of butter, ½ teaspoon of salt, and a few grains of cayenne.
Truss the pheasant neatly and cover the breast with a thickly buttered piece of paper.

Roast

Roast for 30 minutes, basting several times.
Remove the paper and roast for an additional 10 minutes.

Make the gravy

For the gravy, chop the onion and fry it in 1 oz of butter until brown.
Chop the liver and add it to the onion.
Add the remaining gravy ingredients.
Boil the mixture for 30 minutes.
Strain and serve the gravy.

Make the bread sauce

For the bread sauce, stick the cloves into the onion.
Infuse the onion and cloves in the milk over low heat for 30 minutes.
Remove the onion, add the bread, salt, and pepper.
Boil for 5 minutes while stirring.
Add the butter and cream.
Mix and serve the bread sauce.

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.

Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Sugar + ketchuptop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together260 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,066 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,435 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Pheasant: Provides the main meat, which is kept moist by larding and basting during roasting.
Bacon: Larded over the breast, it bastes the lean meat with fat as it roasts.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, helping the skin and paper-covered breast brown and stay moist.
Mushrooms: Stuffed inside the bird, they add earthy flavour and moisture to the cavity.
Flour: Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the butter and onion.
Bread crumbs: Swell in the hot milk to thicken the bread sauce to a soft, smooth texture.

The step that matters

Boil the bread sauce while stirring. Bread crumbs can settle and scorch on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring keeps the starch evenly dispersed so the sauce thickens smoothly.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, butter, mushroom, liver, flour, sugar, ketchup):

Shallotfits better
Leekfits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, butter, mushroom, liver, flour, sugar, ketchup. 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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Mushroom Soup60 recipes

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Roast Pheasant with Mushrooms