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Roast Quail, with Cress

Roast quail coated in stiffened egg whites, baked, topped with browned breadcrumbs, and garnished with watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Quail and watercress work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Roast Quail, with Cress

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the quail

  1. Place a quail in a baking case.

  2. Sprinkle the quail with sherry.

Make the topping

  1. Beat the egg whites with salt until stiff.

  2. Transfer the egg whites to a piping bag with a plain rose tip.

  3. Garnish the tops of the quails with the egg whites, leaving the feet exposed.

Bake and serve

  1. Stand the cases in a baking pan filled with boiling water.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until the egg whites are pale gold.

  3. Remove the cases from the oven.

  4. Sprinkle browned bread crumbs on top.

  5. Arrange the quails on a dish.

  6. Garnish with watercress.

  7. Serve.

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. Quail + watercresstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sherry + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together682 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Bread + watercresstop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Quail + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together151 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Quails
Provide the main meat, which cooks gently under the protective egg white topping.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they form a light crust that sets and turns pale gold in the oven.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that flavour the quail as it cooks.
Browned bread crumbs
Add a crisp, toasted texture and extra browning on top of the dish.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be whipped to stiff peaks so they hold their shape on the quail and set into a stable crust. Under-whipped whites will slump and spread, leaving the birds poorly covered.

“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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