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To Roast Partridges

Roasted partridges served with bread sauce and brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Roast Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the partridges until they can be kept without becoming offensive.

  2. Carefully pick, draw, and singe the birds.

  3. Wipe the insides thoroughly with a clean cloth.

  4. Truss the birds with the head under the wing and legs drawn close together.

Roast and serve

  1. Flour the birds when first laid to the fire and baste them plentifully with butter.

  2. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, adjusting time for desired doneness.

  3. Serve with bread sauce and good brown gravy poured over them.

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. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  2. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
The main protein; cooking to the right doneness keeps the meat tender and juicy.
Butter
Basting fat that carries heat over the birds, promoting browning and a rich flavour.
Flour
Dusted on the birds at the start, it helps form a light crust that browns and holds moisture.

The step that matters

Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, adjusting time for desired doneness. Partridge is lean and dries out quickly once overcooked. Checking doneness early and basting with butter keeps the meat moist while the skin browns.

“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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