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Pheasant Ib LA Bonne Pemme

A pheasant cooked with ham, beef dripping, chutney, onions, pepper, and sea salt.

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 Ib LA Bonne Pemme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pheasant

  1. Prepare the pheasant by removing feathers and entrails.

  2. Singe the pheasant.

Brown and simmer

  1. Heat the beef dripping in a buttered stew pan.

  2. Add the ham to the pan.

  3. Fry the pheasant over gentle heat until browned evenly.

  4. Add chutney to the pan.

  5. Add sliced onions to the pan.

  6. Cover the pan.

  7. Simmer until the pheasant is cooked and onions are soft.

  8. Beat the onions over the fire for 8-10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Transfer the pheasant to a hot dish.

  2. Season the dish.

  3. Serve 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
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through to tender meat when browned and simmered.
Beef dripping
Fat for frying that browns the pheasant and carries flavour through the pan.
Ham
Fatty, salty meat that adds savour and richness to the cooking liquor and onions.
Spanish onions
Soften during simmering and beating, turning sweet and forming a thick, savoury base.
Chutney
Adds sweetness and acidity that balances the rich fat and savoury meat.

The step that matters

Fry the pheasant over gentle heat until browned evenly. Gentle heat lets the surface brown through the Maillard reaction without scorching the fat or burning the pan. Even browning builds flavour before the covered simmer.

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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