Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Broiled Partridge
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Split the partridge.
Wipe it inside and out with a soft, clean cloth; do not wash it.
Broil and serve
Broil the partridge delicately over a clear fire, sprinkling it with salt and cayenne.
Rub fresh butter over the partridge immediately after removing it from the fire.
Serve it quickly with a sauce made from browned butter, flour, water, cayenne, salt, and mushroom ketchup.
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.
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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Partridge
- Provides the meat that is cooked by broiling, the main component of the dish.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and helps the surface brown, and is used in the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the browned butter sauce.
- Mushroom ketchup
- Adds savoury depth to the sauce.
The step that matters
Broil the partridge delicately over a clear fire. Lean game meat dries out quickly under strong, uneven heat. A clear, moderate fire cooks it through gently while the surface browns, keeping the meat moist and tender.
“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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