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Game with Sherry Sauce

A game bird stew in a sherry or Madeira sauce with parsley and fried bread pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Game with Sherry Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Sauté parsley leaves over gentle heat, stirring often, until the saucepan sides turn reddish‑brown.

  2. Mix in 2 teaspoons of flour and let it take on some color.

  3. Gradually add 3/4 pint of strong veal stock, making the sauce boil with each addition.

  4. Add 1/2 pint of sherry or Madeira and the bodies of the game birds.

  5. Boil for 1 to 1½ hours, then strain and remove fat from the sauce.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the game joints and heat slowly until near boiling.

  2. Serve immediately with delicately fried sippets around the dish.

  3. If using mushrooms, add them with the other seasonings into the butter.

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. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks and takes on some colour.
Veal stock
Forms the savoury body of the sauce, giving depth and richness.
Sherry or madeira
Adds acidity and sweetness, building the sauce's aromatic character.
Game bird bodies
Release meaty flavour into the sauce during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Boiling the sauce for 1 to 1½ hours. A long, steady boil reduces the liquid and concentrates flavour. Skimming and straining afterwards removes fat so the sauce stays clean and glossy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, veal, sherry, butter, bread, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, veal, sherry, butter, bread, mushroom. 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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