Why it works: Wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,645 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Pheasants, a lTtALIENNE
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Truss the pheasants as for boiling.
Place them on the spit.
Cover the breasts with reduced wine mirepoix and retain the vegetables.
Wrap each pheasant in well-buttered paper and secure with string at both ends.
Insert a stout iron skewer at the backs and secure tightly with string.
Roast and serve
Roast the pheasants for 1 hour.
Place them on a dish, garnish with raviolis, pour Italian sauce over, and serve.
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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Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pheasant + saucetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together290 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
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Pheasant + buttertop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together511 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Pheasant + winetop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together70 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Pheasants
- Form the main body of the dish, cooked whole and kept moist by wrapping.
- Butter
- Enriches the wrapping paper, adding fat that keeps the birds moist as they roast.
- Reduced wine mirepoix
- Covers the breasts, adding aromatic flavour and moisture during roasting.
- Raviolis
- Serve as a garnish that adds starch and substance to the plate.
- Italian sauce
- Poured over at the end, adding moisture and flavour to the served birds.
The step that matters
Wrap each pheasant in well-buttered paper and secure with string at both ends.. Pheasant is lean and dries out easily over long roasting. A sealed, buttered wrap holds moisture around the meat, and secure tying keeps the wrap in place so the birds cook evenly.
“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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