Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Chartreuse of Partridges
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the carrots and turnips until tender but not overcooked.
Prepare the spinach by cooking and pressing it.
Line a round or oval mold with buttered paper.
Cut the carrots, turnips, and spinach into decorative shapes.
Assemble
Fit the shapes into the mold to create a design on the bottom and sides.
Make a wall using the pressed braised cabbage.
Fill the center with braised partridge and a little salmis sauce.
Steam the chartreuse until hot.
Serve
Turn it out onto a serving dish and pour salmis sauce around the base.
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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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + spinachtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together320 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together897 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + spinachtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together870 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Spinach + cabbagetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together190 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red carrots
- Provide colour and firmness for the decorative design once cooked and cut.
- Turnips
- Add structure and a tender, mild texture to the decorative lining.
- Spinach
- Adds green colour and a soft, pliable texture that holds the shapes together.
- Braised cabbage
- Forms the pressed wall that holds the filling and gives the mold its shape.
- Braised partridge
- Supplies the rich, savoury meat that forms the filling at the centre.
The step that matters
Turn it out onto a serving dish. Once steamed, the chartreuse is soft and can break apart. Letting it rest briefly and turning it gently onto the dish helps the design and wall stay intact.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, spinach, butter, sauce):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, spinach, butter, sauce. 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.
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