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Ortolans, Roasted

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and watercress work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 842 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Ortolans, Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove the head, neck, and crop from the ortolans, leaving the trail intact.

  2. Truss the birds for roasting and brush them with warm butter.

  3. Cover each bird's breast with a bay leaf or vine leaf and tie on 5 thin slices of bacon.

  4. Skewer the birds through their bodies and roast them in front of a hot fire for about 10 minutes.

  5. Baste the birds continuously with hot butter and place toast underneath to catch the drippings.

  6. Once cooked, remove the skewers and strings; the bacon can remain if desired and be brushed with warm glaze.

  7. Serve the ortolans on the toast, garnished with watercress, and serve the gravy and breadcrumbs separately.

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 + watercresstop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together842 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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