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Pheasants — Continued

A pheasant stuffed with a truffle and liver mixture, roasted and served with Italian sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Liver and truffle work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 395 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓

Pheasants — Continued

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Prepare a stuffing by finely chopping the flesh and liver of the woodcock or partridge, the liver and inside fat of the pheasant, and the truffles.

  2. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs, then stir in the egg yolks and mix thoroughly.

Roast and serve

  1. Bone the pheasant, stuff it with the mixture, and sew it up.

  2. Fix the pheasant on a spit and roast it, basting occasionally with chablis wine.

  3. Place a slice of toast in the bottom of the pan to catch the gravy.

  4. Once cooked, place the pheasant on a hot dish with the toast underneath and serve with Italian sauce mixed with chopped truffles.

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. Liver + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  2. Pheasant + truffletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Pheasant + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  4. Truffle + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,604 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Truffles
Adds a rich, earthy aroma that perfumes the stuffing and the sauce.
Egg yolks
Bind the chopped stuffing so it holds together when sliced.
Pheasant liver
Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture to the stuffing.
Woodcock or partridge flesh
Adds deeper game flavour and body to the stuffing.
Inside fat of the pheasant
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and carries flavour during roasting.

The step that matters

Stuffing the bird and roasting it on a spit. Egg yolks in the stuffing set when heated, so the mixture must be well combined and the bird cooked through to avoid a raw or loose centre. Basting with wine keeps the lean game meat from drying out during the long roast.

“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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