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Crepinettes of Partridges, a LA D’estaing

Small partridge meat balls coated in bacon, truffles, and sauce, fried and served with a lemon butter glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon 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 ↓

Crepinettes of Partridges, a LA D’estaing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Combine the quenelle force-meat, diced bacon, diced truffles, Espagnole sauce, partridge glaze, and cayenne pepper in a bowl and mix well.

  2. On a floured surface, drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture and shape them into egg-like forms.

Wrap and fry

  1. Wrap each piece in a small piece of pig's caul and flatten slightly with your fingers.

  2. Dip the wrapped pieces in clarified butter and fry in a hot pan until lightly colored.

  3. Drain on a napkin and arrange in a close circle on a serving plate.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix half of the partridge glaze with a small pat of butter and lemon juice, then pour over the crepinette before serving.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Meat + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Quenelle force-meat
Forms the soft, binding base that holds the filling together.
French truffles
Adds a concentrated earthy aroma and luxurious flavor to the filling.
Bacon fat
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the filling tender when cooked.
Partridge glaze
Contributes concentrated savory flavor and some body to the filling and finish.
Espagnole sauce
Adds moisture and savory depth that helps bind the mixture.

The step that matters

Frying the wrapped pieces in clarified butter. Frying over high heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, adding flavor and color, while the rich force-meat must heat through gently so it stays tender rather than dry or tough.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, truffle, sauce, pepper, flour, butter):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, truffle, sauce, pepper, flour, butter. 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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