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Quail H LA Bonne Bouche

Quail stuffed with forcemeat, baked in butter, lemon, and port wine, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Quail H LA Bonne Bouche

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the quail

  1. Fill each quail with forcemeat.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg and mix in flour, salt, cayenne, nutmeg, bread crumbs, and parsley.

  3. Dip each quail into the egg mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. In a deep dish, combine butter, lemon juice, and port wine.

  2. Place the quails in the dish and bake in a very hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for 15-20 minutes.

  3. Serve each quail on a slice of hot buttered toast, pour gravy over, and return to the oven for a few minutes to heat through.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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 cooked whole around the stuffing.
Forcemeat
Fills the birds, adding a savoury, moist, rich filling as they cook.
Egg
Binds the coating so the crumbs and seasonings stick to each quail.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating when baked in the hot oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dish and helps the coating brown.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the sauce that forms in the dish.

The step that matters

Bake in a very hot oven for 15-20 minutes. Quail is small and lean, so overcooking dries the meat. A very hot oven browns the coating quickly while the inside stays tender, and the birds need careful timing.

“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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