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Fillets of Pheasants a LA Vopalliere

Pheasant fillets seasoned, pan‑fried, and served with bread fillets, truffles, and a Spanish sauce glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Fillets of Pheasants a LA Vopalliere

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the fillets with salt and pepper.

  2. Melt clarified butter and coat the fillets, then cover with buttered paper.

  3. Cut bread into the shape of the fillets and fry in butter until golden.

  4. Remove the nerve from the undersides of the fillets and decorate with truffles by making small incisions.

Cook

  1. Sauté the large fillets in a hot pan for about two minutes until firm.

  2. Drain the fillets on a napkin, trim, and return to the pan with a few spoonfuls of Spanish sauce.

  3. Sauté the small fillets in butter and glaze the bread fillets.

Serve

  1. To serve, alternate a large fillet and a bread fillet, forming a ring with small glazed fillets, and pour in the sauce mixed with glaze and sugar.

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 + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pheasant + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

Fillets of pheasant
Provide the lean, tender meat that is the main element of the dish.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and carries flavour while coating the fillets and frying the bread.
Bread
Fried in butter until golden, it forms a crisp base shaped like the fillets.
Truffles
Adds earthy aroma when set into small incisions on the fillets.
Spanish sauce
Adds body and savoury depth to the fillets when they are returned to the pan.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the sauce mixed with glaze, balancing the savoury elements.

The step that matters

Sautéing the large fillets. Pheasant fillets are lean and dry out quickly, so a short, very hot sauté sets the outside and keeps the inside tender. 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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