Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Pheasants and Partridges
Ingredients
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 and roast the birds
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Spit the pheasants or partridges and lay them down on a roasting pan.
Dust the birds with flour and baste them often with fresh butter.
Roast the birds for about 30 minutes, keeping them at a good distance from the fire.
Make the gravy
For the gravy, cook the scrag of mutton in a saucepan.
Add the lemon pickle, ketchup, and browning to the saucepan.
Strain the gravy and pour a little into the dish with the birds.
Serve
Serve the remaining gravy in a separate bowl and the bread sauce in another.
Garnish the dish with one of the principal feathers from the pheasant.
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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Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Pheasants or partridges
- Form the main dish, with flesh that cooks to a firm, savoury texture when roasted.
- Fresh butter
- Basting adds moisture and promotes browning on the surface of the birds.
- Flour
- Dusting helps the skin brown and gives a light coating that aids browning.
- Scrag of mutton
- Simmered to make the gravy, adding meaty flavour and body to the sauce.
- Ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity to the gravy, deepening its savoury flavour.
- Lemon pickle
- Contributes sharp acidity and tang that balances the rich gravy.
The step that matters
Basting and roasting at a steady distance from the heat. Basting often with butter keeps the lean birds moist and helps the skin brown evenly. Keeping them away from the fire prevents scorching before the meat cooks through.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, flour, butter, mutton, ketchup, bread, sauce):
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Applefits about as well
- Red currantfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, flour, butter, mutton, ketchup, bread, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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