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Partridge Anx Choux, Plus Distinguee

A stew of partridges with cabbage, bacon, salt pork, carrots, and saveloy, finished with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,505 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Partridge Anx Choux, Plus Distinguee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the partridges and sauce

  1. Pick, clean, singe, and truss the partridges.

  2. In a stew-pan, melt some butter and add a pinch of flour.

  3. Pour in the broth and add the diced bacon and mixed herbs; let it stew.

Prepare the cabbage and vegetables

  1. In another stew-pan, combine the cabbage, salt pork, and fat; fill with water and boil until three-quarters done.

  2. Slice the red carrot, pale carrot, and saveloy into round pieces.

  3. Butter a saucepan and arrange the carrot slices in circles at the bottom.

  4. Cut the boiled pork into six pieces and place them upright around the saucepan.

  5. Drain the cabbage and layer it over the carrots, placing some between the pork pieces and around the partridges.

Stew and finish

  1. Dilute the stew liquid from the partridges with gravy or broth, strain it, and pour it over the partridges.

  2. Stew for half an hour, ensuring it does not stick to the pan.

  3. Invert a dish over the stew-pan and turn it upside down.

  4. If not evenly browned, color it with a little gravy or caramel.

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. Cabbage + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + carrottop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Pork + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,772 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Butter and flour 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

Partridges
Form the main body of the dish, providing the meat that the stew is built around.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a soft, tender texture as it cooks down into the stew.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savoury richness that flavours the cabbage and the stew liquid.
Bacon
Adds smoky, salty fat to the broth, deepening the savoury flavour.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour to the bottom layer of the dish.
Broth
Forms the cooking liquid that carries flavour and keeps the stew moist.

The step that matters

Stew for half an hour, ensuring it does not stick to the pan. Gentle, steady heat and enough liquid keep the stew from scorching on the base while the meat becomes tender. Sugars and proteins stuck to the hot pan can burn and taste bitter.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pork, carrot):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pork, carrot. 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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