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A savory soup of quail fillets, quenelles, and a creamy mushroom and wine puree.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 11,585 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Remove larger bones from quail carcasses and roughly chop the meat.

  2. In a stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat and add bay leaf, thyme, shallots, nutmeg, and minionette pepper.

  3. Cook until browned, then add chopped mushrooms and Sauterne wine.

  4. Boil for 10 minutes.

  5. Stir in the partly boiled rice and blond veal broth.

  6. Gently boil for 1 hour.

Make the puree

  1. Drain the mixture into a sieve and pound it thoroughly in a mortar.

  2. Return the mixture to the stewpan, add the broth it was boiled in, and warm it gently.

  3. Rub the puree through a tammy (fine sieve) into a well-tinned soup pot and cool it.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, warm the puree carefully, ensuring it doesn't get too hot.

  2. Finish seasoning with crayfish butter, partridge glaze, and salt if needed.

  3. Pour the soup into a tureen containing the quail fillet scallops and small quenelles, then 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Thyme + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together12,516 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,509 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Thyme + shallottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Thyme + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Partly boiled rice thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, body-rich texture when pureed.
Butter
Melted butter carries aroma from the aromatics and adds richness to the soup.
Shallots
Cooked until browned, shallots add sweetness and a savoury depth of flavour.
Mushrooms
Chopped mushrooms add earthy, savoury flavour and body to the base.
Sauterne wine
Wine adds acidity and fruity aroma as it simmers into the base.

The step that matters

Rub the puree through a tammy and keep it from overheating before serving. Pressing the cooked solids through a fine sieve removes fibres so the soup turns smooth. Reheating gently matters because strong heat can make a puree split or turn grainy, and boiling would toughen the delicate quail quenelles and scallops.

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, thyme, shallot, pepper, mushroom, wine, rice):

  1. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  2. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  3. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, thyme, shallot, pepper, mushroom, wine, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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