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To Stew Partridges

A stew of partridges browned with bacon, simmered with gravy, cabbage, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Stew Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Truss the partridges with wings over the back and legs drawn in.

Brown the partridges

  1. In a stewpan, fry strips of bacon until brown with the butter.

  2. Add the partridges and turn them until very brown, ensuring bacon is on the breast.

  3. Add gravy and meat and vegetable trimmings.

Stew and serve

  1. Boil and drain the cabbage, then slice it with butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. Combine the cabbage with the gravy and partridges, and stew gently for an hour, turning frequently.

  3. Serve with bacon underneath and cabbage around, ensuring the sauce is skimmed.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

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

  3. Walnut + cabbagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together133 recipes

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

  4. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Form the main body of the stew, becoming tender and flavourful as they braise slowly.
Bacon (in the method)
Adds fat and savoury flavour as it browns in the butter and lies under the birds.
Butter
Carries browning in the pan and gives the cabbage a rich, glossy finish.
Gravy
Provides liquid for gentle stewing and builds a savoury sauce around the birds.
Cabbage
Soaks up the sauce and adds mild sweetness and body to the dish.

The step that matters

Browning the partridges. Deep browning in the bacon fat creates flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale birds give a flat, greyish sauce, so they need to colour well before the liquid goes in.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, walnut, meat, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, walnut, meat, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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