Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Partridge Au Ciioux
Ingredients
Directions
Braise
Fry the cabbage, ham or bacon, and partridges in a stewpan for 10 minutes.
Add the consomme, pepper, and salt.
Let it stew for about 1 hour (or 1.5 hours for older partridges).
Remove the cabbage and partridges from the stew.
Finish the stock
Chop the cabbage.
Add the butter, pepper, and salt to taste.
Reduce the stock.
Return the partridges to the stock to heat through.
Serve
Place the cabbage in the center of a serving dish.
Cut the partridges in half.
Arrange the partridges around the cabbage.
Pour the stock around the dish.
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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Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Cabbage + hamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together186 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,058 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Partridges
- Provide the main meat, which becomes tender as it stews slowly in the liquid.
- White cabbage
- Forms the bulk of the dish and soaks up flavour from the stewing liquid.
- Ham or bacon
- Adds savoury, salty fat that flavours the stock and the cabbage.
- Consomme
- Serves as the stewing liquid, carrying flavour and moisture through the dish.
- Butter
- Enriches the reduced stock, adding richness and a silkier mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Reduce the stock. Reducing concentrates the flavour of the consomme and drippings while evaporating excess water. Stopping too early leaves the stock thin, while over-reducing makes it overly salty, since the ham or bacon and consomme already contribute salt.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, butter):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardfits about as well
- Potatofits about as well
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, butter. 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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