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To Roast Partridges

Roasted partridges served with bread sauce and crisp bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

To Roast Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick and draw the partridges, then skewer them to appear plump.

  2. Prepare plenty of crisp bread crumbs.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the partridges for half an hour, basting with butter.

  2. Serve with bread sauce in two boats, placing some crumbs on the dish and some on a plate.

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

Partridges
Provide the main meat, which cooks quickly and stays moist when basted.
Butter
Adds richness and browning to the skin while basting.
Crisp bread crumbs
Add a crunchy texture as a contrast to the tender meat.
Bread sauce
Adds moisture and a mild, creamy flavour to the lean birds.

The step that matters

Roast the partridges for half an hour, basting with butter. Partridge is a lean game bird that dries out quickly. Regular basting with butter keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly, while overcooking makes the meat tough.

“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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