Name: Salmis of Partridges and Other Game Birds
Ingredients: 4 small game birds (like partridges, quails, or snipe); ¼ pound streaky bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces; 1 ounce butter; 1 ounce flour; 1 glass of wine; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Salmis of Partridges and Other Game Birds

Ingredients

4 small game birds (like partridges, quails, or snipe)
¼ pound streaky bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 ounce butter
1 ounce flour
1 glass of wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the birds as if for roasting.

Make the stew

In a stew-pan, melt the butter and fry the bacon pieces until they start to color.
Add the birds to the pan and cook for 8 minutes.
Dredge the flour over the birds and stir.
Pour in the wine and simmer for 20 minutes or until tender.

Serve

Remove the birds, place them on a hot dish, and pour the sauce over them.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Quail + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together212 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Quail + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together512 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Wine + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,066 recipes

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

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

Game birds: Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow simmering in the sauce.
Streaky bacon: Adds fat and savory flavor as it renders into the pan.
Butter: Carries the frying of the bacon and birds and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the cooking liquid into a sauce as it is stirred in.
Wine: Adds acidity and flavor to the liquid and helps tenderize the birds as it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmer the birds until tender. Simmering gently breaks down the connective tissue in small game birds, which are lean and can turn dry or tough if cooked too fast or too long.

“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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Salmis of Partridges and Other Game Birds