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Partridges A-LA-brgise

A stew of partridges braised with bacon, beef, veal, herbs, and a rich gravy, served with sweetbread, truffles, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and liver match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 392 recipes. Both carry enoic acid, which smells butter, cheesy. The science ↓

Partridges A-LA-brgise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the partridges

  1. Truss the partridges with their legs into their bodies, lard them, and season with beaten mace, pepper, and salt.

  2. In a stewpan, layer slices of bacon, beef, and veal at the bottom.

  3. Add a piece of carrot, a small chopped onion, a bundle of sweet herbs, and whole pepper.

  4. Place the partridges breast down, cover with thin slices of beef and veal, and sprinkle with finely shredded parsley.

Stew and reduce the gravy

  1. Cover and stew for 8–10 minutes over low heat.

  2. Shake the pan and pour in 1 pint of boiling water, then cover and stew for another 30 minutes over medium heat.

  3. Remove the birds and keep them warm.

  4. Pour 1 pint of thin gravy into the pan and boil until reduced to about ½ pint.

  5. Strain off the gravy and skim off the fat.

Finish the ragout and serve

  1. In the meantime, stew veal sweetbread, truffles, morels, cock’s combs, and fowl livers in 1 pint of good gravy for 30 minutes.

  2. Add blanched artichoke bottoms, asparagus tops, and mushrooms to the mixture.

  3. Combine the other gravy with this mixture and heat the partridges in it.

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. Veal + livertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  2. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flavoured as they stew in the braising liquid.
Bacon
Adds savoury fat and smoky flavour to the base that perfumes the birds during braising.
Veal sweetbread
Provides a tender, delicate texture that contrasts with the firm meats and rich gravy.
Truffles
Contribute a deep, earthy aroma that gives the sauce its luxurious character.
Morels
Add a meaty, earthy flavour and a chewy texture to the mixed garnish.
Fowl livers
Enrich the gravy with creamy richness and a deeper, savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Reducing the gravy to about half a pint. Boiling concentrates the gravy's flavour and thickens it through evaporation. Too little reduction leaves the sauce thin and bland, while over-reduction makes it salty and sticky.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, carrot, onion, pepper, truffle, liver):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, carrot, onion, pepper, truffle, liver. 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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