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Salmis of Partridges, a LA Perigord

A braised partridges dish with sauce, truffles, mushrooms, and croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Salmis of Partridges, a LA Perigord

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the partridges as directed.

  2. Chop the trimmings to make the sauce.

  3. Cut out a dozen small heart-shaped croutons from bread, about ¼ inch thick.

  4. Make an incision around the edges.

  5. Fry the croutons in butter.

  6. Empty the croutons.

  7. Fill the croutons with truffle puree.

Assemble and serve

  1. Warm the salmi with a little sauce.

  2. Dish the salmi up to form a well in the center.

  3. Place six croutons around the top.

  4. Fill the center with small quenelles of partridges.

  5. Pour sauce over the salmi.

  6. Garnish the base with the remaining croutons.

  7. Serve.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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, cooked and served in the salmi.
French white wine
Adds acidity and aroma that lighten and balance the rich sauce.
Consomme
Adds savoury liquid that builds body and flavour in the sauce.
Espagnole sauce
Gives a rich, glossy brown sauce that coats the partridge and thickens the dish.
Truffles
Provide an intense earthy aroma and flavour to the croutons.

The step that matters

Fill the croutons with truffle puree. Frying the croutons in butter is needed to crisp and seal them, so they hold their shape and filling without going soggy under the sauce.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, sauce, anchovy, butter, truffle, mushroom, bread):

  1. Plumfits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Red currantfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, sauce, anchovy, butter, truffle, mushroom, bread. 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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