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Pheasants, a LA Dauphinoise

Pheasants braised in wine and stock, finished with a breadcrumb and Parmesan coating, baked until lightly browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Pheasants, a LA Dauphinoise

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the pheasants

  1. Truss the pheasants as for boiling.

  2. Braise them in a wine mirepoix until done.

  3. Remove the strings from the pheasants.

  4. Let the pheasants cool partially.

Make the coating

  1. Cover the pheasants with reduced Allemande sauce mixed with half the mirepoix.

  2. Allow the sauce to cool.

  3. Coat the pheasants with a mixture of bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake

  1. Place the pheasants in a buttered deep baking dish.

  2. Add the remaining mirepoix to moisten the bottom of the pan.

  3. Sprinkle the pheasants with clarified butter.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until lightly browned, basting frequently.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. White wine + parmesan cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together697 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasants
Main protein; braising keeps the meat moist while it cooks through.
White wine
Flavours the mirepoix braising liquid, adding acidity and aroma to the meat.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the oven.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the topping brown and crisp.
Clarified butter
Fat that promotes even browning and a rich surface.

The step that matters

Let the pheasants cool partially before saucing. If the birds are still hot, the sauce and coating can slide off or melt unevenly. Partial cooling lets the Allemande sauce cling and set, so the crumb coating adheres and browns evenly in the oven.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, white wine, pepper, butter, bread, parmesan cheese):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Grapefits less well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, white wine, pepper, butter, bread, parmesan cheese. 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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