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Mushroomed Partridge Steak

A partridge steak sautéed with mushrooms and red wine, served over rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Mushroomed Partridge Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lard the cleaned partridge with bacon and season with coarse sea salt.

  2. Dredge the partridge in flour.

Cook

  1. In a hot skillet, fry the partridge in butter until browned.

  2. Steam the sliced mushrooms in butter until tender, then pour over the fried partridge.

  3. Add the red wine and cover to steam for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. Slice the partridge and serve with the mushroom sauce over it and cooked rice on the side.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Mushroom + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Mushroom + red winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together720 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Partridge
Provides the main lean meat that is browned and then sliced for serving.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor as the partridge is larded, helping keep the lean meat moist.
All-purpose flour
Forms a light coating that helps the partridge brown and thickens the pan juices.
Butter
Carries browning in the skillet and gives the mushrooms a rich, savory flavor.
Mushrooms
Soften in butter and release moisture that forms the savory sauce.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth to the pan sauce as it steams with the partridge.

The step that matters

Browning the floured partridge in the hot skillet. Flour and a hot pan drive the Maillard reaction, which creates the brown color and savory flavor. A pan that is not hot enough steams the bird instead, leaving it pale and flat-tasting.

“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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