Name: Partridges a LA Supreme
Ingredients: 3 partridges; 1 pinch salt; 1 pinch pepper; 2 oz chicken forcemeat; 2 truffles, finely sliced; 4 mushrooms, finely sliced; butter for greasing

Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Partridges a LA Supreme

Ingredients

Directions

Singe, draw, and wipe the partridges clean, removing the skin from the breasts.
Make an incision on the top of each breast-bone from end to end and carefully cut off the entire breast on both sides.
Remove the small fillet under each breast and set aside.
Make a 3-inch long by 1-inch deep incision in the thinner side of each breast.
Season the inside of each breast with salt and pepper.
Stuff the breasts with chicken forcemeat mixed with truffles and mushrooms.
Butter a well-tinned copper sauté pan and gently lay in the six stuffed breasts.
Press the small fillets into a boat-like form, make small slanting incisions on top, and insert a small slice into each.

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.

Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,172 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,900 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,209 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).