Why it works: Butter and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Broiled Partridges
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and sear
Split the partridges down the back and lay them flat.
Melt butter in a skillet and add the partridges.
Season with coarse sea salt and whole black pepper.
Cook on both sides until they sweat.
Broil and serve
Place on a grill over gentle heat and broil until cooked through.
Serve with a poor man's sauce and West Indian pickle.
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.
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Partridges
- Lean game meat that forms the main body of the dish and can dry out if overcooked.
- Butter
- Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the skin brown in the skillet.
The step that matters
Broil until cooked through. Lean game birds have little fat to protect them, so over-cooking under gentle heat makes the meat dry and tough. Cooking gently and checking doneness keeps the flesh moist while the heat cooks it through.
“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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