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Pheasant Alia Neapolitana

Pheasant cooked with butter, roasted, then served over macaroni with tomato sauce, gravy, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,448 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pheasant Alia Neapolitana

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and roast

  1. Lard the pheasant.

  2. Roast it over a brisk fire, basting often until done.

Carve and serve

  1. Carefully cut up the bird and put it back together.

  2. Serve it on a bed of macaroni, cheese, tomatoes, and gravy stewed together until the macaroni is tender.

  3. Serve with additional sauce or gravy.

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. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Tomato + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pheasant + beeftop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together131 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasant
Forms the main protein; roasting over high heat browns and cooks it through.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dish.
Macaroni
Forms the base bed that soaks up the stewed sauce and becomes tender.
Beef or veal gravy
Supplies savory meaty liquid that stews with the pasta and adds moisture.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and body to the sauce stewed with the macaroni.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savory depth and helps bind the sauce to the pasta.

The step that matters

Basting the pheasant while it roasts. Pheasant is a lean bird with little fat, so it can dry out easily. Frequent basting with fat and juices keeps the meat moist while the surface browns.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, butter, beef, parmesan cheese):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Onionfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, butter, beef, parmesan cheese. 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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