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Pheasant D. LA Bonne Femme

A pheasant cooked with ham, chutney, and onions, simmered in beef dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 D. LA Bonne Femme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick, draw, and singe the pheasant.

Brown and simmer

  1. In a buttered stewpan, heat the beef dripping over gentle heat.

  2. Add the ham and brown the pheasant evenly all over.

  3. Stir in the chutney and sliced onions.

  4. Cover the saucepan and simmer gently until the pheasant is cooked and the onions are soft.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer the pheasant to a hot dish.

  2. Cook the onions over the fire for 8-10 minutes.

  3. Season the onions with pepper and salt.

  4. Serve the onions around the bird.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pheasant + beeftop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together131 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. 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
Is the main meat, browned and then cooked gently until tender in the covered pan.
Beef dripping
Carries heat evenly and fat-browns the pheasant and ham for flavour.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour and browns in the fat, seasoning the dish.
Chutney
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich fat and meat.
Spanish onions
Soften during simmering and add sweetness, forming a side around the bird.

The step that matters

Brown the pheasant evenly all over. Browning in hot fat builds the Maillard flavour and colour on the surface. Uneven browning leaves pale patches and a flat taste, so turn the bird so all sides colour.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. 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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