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Quails, Compote of

Quails simmered with bacon, onions, mushrooms, and veal gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Quails, Compote of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quails

  1. Remove the claws and empty the quails without making a large opening.

  2. Truss the quails with the legs inward.

  3. Blanch the bacon pieces to draw out the salt.

Fry and make the sauce

  1. Fry the bacon pieces in butter until light brown.

  2. Remove the bacon from the pan.

  3. Fry the quails until they are also light brown.

  4. Make a roux.

  5. Moisten the roux with a ladleful of veal gravy.

  6. Add parsley, green onions, small white onions, and mushrooms to the roux.

  7. Once the quails are done, remove them from the pan.

  8. Let the bacon stew until thoroughly cooked.

  9. Skim the sauce.

  10. Strain the sauce over the quails.

Serve

  1. Serve the quails hot, garnished with bacon, mushrooms, and small onions.

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

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

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Quails
Provide the main meat, which is browned and then cooked in the sauce.
Bacon
Adds salty, smoky fat that flavours the butter and the sauce.
Butter
Carries the frying heat and browns the bacon and quails, adding richness.
Veal gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding body and savoury depth.
Roux (in the method)
Flour and fat cooked together to thicken the sauce to a smooth body.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a soft, tender texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the quails until light brown. Browning the surface builds flavour through the Maillard reaction. Frying too hot or too long can dry the lean meat, so colour should be light and even.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, butter, veal, parsley, mushroom):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, butter, veal, parsley, 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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