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Ptarmigans, Roasted

Roasted ptarmigans served with bacon, breadcrumbs, gravy, and bread sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ptarmigans, Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the birds in a cool, dry place for 3 to 4 days.

  2. When ready, pluck, draw, and truss the birds like roast grouse.

  3. Tie a slice of fat bacon over each breast.

Roast

  1. Dredge the birds lightly with flour and baste well.

  2. Roast the birds before a clear fire for 30 to 35 minutes, basting frequently with butter, then remove the bacon.

Serve

  1. Serve on toast to catch the gravy, with bread sauce, fried breadcrumbs, and gravy 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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

What each ingredient does

Ptarmigans
The main meat, a lean game bird that is roasted whole and trussed.
Butter
Basting adds moisture and helps the surface brown during roasting.
Bacon
A fat layer tied over the breast that bastes the lean meat and keeps it moist.
Flour (in the method)
A light dusting helps the surface brown and crisp as it roasts.

The step that matters

Basting frequently with butter. Ptarmigan is very lean, so it dries out quickly over heat. Regular basting spreads melted fat over the surface, which keeps the meat moist and helps it brown evenly.

“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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