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Partridge Souffle

A baked dish of pounded roast partridge mixed with breadcrumbs, butter, cream, seasoning, and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Partridge Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the partridge

  1. Remove the meat from the partridge and pound it until smooth.

  2. Rub the meat through a sieve.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the pounded meat with breadcrumbs, butter, cream, and seasoning.

  2. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture just before baking.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25 minutes.

  2. Serve with gravy made from the partridge bones or good stock.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air, lifting the soufflé as it bakes and giving it a light texture.
Partridge
Cooked meat forms the main body of the soufflé, giving it flavour and substance.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the mixture hold together before baking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender crumb.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture soft and smooth.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be whipped to stiff peaks and folded in gently, just before baking. Overmixing deflates the air bubbles, and the soufflé will rise less and turn dense.

“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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