Why it works: Mace and allspice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,189 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓
To Pot Partridge
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Clean the partridges thoroughly.
Season them with mace, allspice, white pepper, and coarse sea salt.
Rub the seasoning into every part of the birds.
Place the partridges breast down in a pan, packing them closely.
Add a generous amount of butter on top.
Cover the pan with a flour paste and a paper, tying it securely.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.
Once cooled, transfer the birds to pots and cover them with butter.
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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Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,189 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,695 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,302 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Allspice + white peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together272 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mace, allspice, butter, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Clovefits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mace, allspice, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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