Name: Quails, Roasted
Ingredients: Quails (as many as needed); Vine leaves (as many as quails); Small slices of fat bacon (as many as quails); Square croutons of buttered toast (as many as quails); Good brown gravy; Fried breadcrumbs; Watercress; Butter (for basting)

Why it works: Quail and watercress work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Quails, Roasted

Ingredients

Quails (as many as needed)
Vine leaves (as many as quails)
Small slices of fat bacon (as many as quails)
Square croutons of buttered toast (as many as quails)
Good brown gravy
Fried breadcrumbs
Watercress
Butter (for basting)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Pluck the quails and remove the head, neck, and crop, leaving the trail.
Truss the quails for roasting and brush them with warm butter.
Cover each breast with a vine leaf and tie a piece of bacon over the leaf.
Skewer the quails on a long steel skewer, running it through the body of each bird.

Roast

Roast or bake the quails at 400°F (200°C) for 12 to 15 minutes, basting frequently with hot butter.
Once cooked, remove the skewers and strings; the bacon and vine leaves can be served or removed.
If not removed, brush the bacon with warm glaze.
Serve the quails on the buttered toast placed in a dripping tin to catch the juices.
Garnish with watercress and serve the gravy and breadcrumbs in sauce boats.

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.

Quail + watercresstop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together35 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Quail + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together512 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Watercress + buttertop 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

What each ingredient does

Quails: Provide the main meat, which cooks quickly and stays moist when basted with butter.
Vine leaves: Cover the breast, protecting the meat from drying out in the oven.
Bacon: Adds fat and savoury flavour as it renders over the birds.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the skin brown as it is basted over the birds.

The step that matters

Roast or bake the quails at 400°F (200°C) for 12 to 15 minutes, basting frequently with hot butter.. Quail is small and lean, so a short time at high heat cooks it through before it dries out. Frequent basting with butter keeps the surface 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.