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Partridges

Partridges roasted in buttered paper and served with a sauce of white sauce, veal broth, truffles, sugar, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wrap each partridge in buttered paper.

  2. Fix them on a spit and roast in front of a clear fire for 30 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine white sauce and veal broth, and bring to a boil.

  2. Add sliced truffles and sugar, stirring until thickened. Mix in whipped cream.

Serve

  1. Remove partridges from paper, place on a hot dish, and pour sauce over them. Serve immediately.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Veal + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + truffletop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,490 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
The main protein, cooked gently in buttered paper over an open fire.
White sauce
Forms the thick, creamy body of the sauce that coats the birds.
Veal broth
Adds savoury depth and liquid to the sauce as it reduces and thickens.
French truffles
Contribute a strong earthy aroma and flavour to the sauce.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, smooth texture to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce while it thickens. Constant stirring keeps the starch-thickened white sauce smooth and prevents it from scorching or forming lumps on the bottom of the pan.

“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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