Why it works: Shallot and mushroom 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 ↓
Partridge Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the basin
Grease and line a 1.5 pint pudding basin with suet paste.
Place the veal cutlet pieces in the bottom of the basin.
Layer the partridge joints on top of the veal.
Sprinkle with pepper, salt, chopped shallot, and mushrooms.
Pour in the brown stock.
Cook
Wet the edge of the paste, cover with a top crust, and tie tightly with a cloth.
Plunge into boiling water and boil gently for 2 hours.
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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Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,982 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,898 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,446 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,049 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
- Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful during the long gentle boil.
- Veal cutlet
- Adds collagen and gelatin that enrich the meat and give body to the juices.
- Brown stock
- Supplies moisture and savoury depth that gently cooks the meat and forms the sauce.
- Suet paste
- Forms a sealed crust that traps steam and keeps the filling moist during boiling.
- Shallot
- Adds a mild aromatic sweetness that mellows as it cooks in the stock.
The step that matters
Tie the cloth tightly and keep the water boiling gently. A loose cover lets water seep into the basin and dilute the juices, while a vigorous boil can break the crust and toughen the meat. Keeping the seal tight and the simmer gentle keeps the filling moist and tender.
Swap the shallot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, mushroom):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits about as well
- Spinachfits about as well
- Shallotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, 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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