Name: Pheasant a LA Bonne Femme
Ingredients: 1 well-hung pheasant; 3 ounces beef dripping; 6 ounces ham, cut into 1-inch squares; 1 tablespoon chutney; 3 or 4 large Spanish onions, thinly sliced; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pheasant a LA Bonne Femme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pheasant

Pick, draw, and singe the pheasant.
Place the pheasant in a buttered stewpan with beef dripping and ham.
Fry over gentle heat until the pheasant is lightly browned all over.

Cook the pheasant and onions

Add chutney and sliced onions, then cover the saucepan.
Simmer gently until the pheasant is cooked and the onions are soft.
Transfer the bird to a hot dish.
Beat the onions over the fire for 8 to 10 minutes.
Season the onions with pepper and salt.

Serve

Place the onions around the bird.
Serve immediately.

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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pheasant + beeftop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together131 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,729 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasant: Provides the main meat, which is browned and then slowly simmered until tender.
Beef dripping: Fat for frying that browns the pheasant and adds rich flavour.
Ham: Adds salty, savoury flavour to the fat and the cooking juices.
Spanish onions: Soften during simmering and beating, becoming sweet and forming a thick base around the bird.
Chutney: Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich fat and savoury meat.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the pheasant is cooked and the onions are soft. High heat or a boil would toughen the lean pheasant meat and can make the onions catch on the pan. Gentle covered simmering cooks the meat through while keeping it moist and softening the onions evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, beef, ham, pepper):

Capsicumfits about as well
Carrotfits about as well
Onionthe original
Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, beef, ham, pepper. 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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Pheasant a LA Bonne Femme