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Boudin of Pheasant a LA Richelieu

A pheasant sausage made with roasted potato, butter, spices, eggs, and breadcrumbs, poached then browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Boudin of Pheasant a LA Richelieu

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince and pound the pheasant flesh to a smooth paste.

  2. Add the roasted or boiled potato and blend well.

  3. Incorporate fresh butter, mace, nutmeg, cayenne, and salt; pound for 10-15 minutes.

  4. Remove the germs from the eggs and add them one at a time, mixing until smooth.

Shape and poach

  1. Shape the mixture into a roll and place it in a buttered stewpan.

  2. Pour boiling water over it and poach gently for 10-15 minutes.

  3. Carefully lift it out, drain on a sieve, and let it cool.

Coat and finish

  1. Cover with beaten egg and then with fine breadcrumbs.

  2. Broil over a clear fire or fry in butter until golden brown.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Pheasant + potatotop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 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

Pheasant flesh
Forms the main body of the boudin and gives it its savoury flavour.
Potatoes
Adds body and moisture, keeping the mixture soft and light rather than dense.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, making the smooth filling tender when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds its shape when poached and sliced.

The step that matters

Pounding the filling smooth before adding eggs. Pounding the meat, potato and butter together emulsifies the mixture into a fine, even paste. If the filling is lumpy or the eggs are added too early or too fast, the roll can split or turn grainy during poaching.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, potato, butter, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, potato, butter, nutmeg, egg. 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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