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Pheasant, Broiled

A pheasant divided into joints, seasoned, fried, coated, broiled, and served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Pheasant, Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Divide the pheasant into neat joints and season with coarse sea salt and a little cayenne pepper.

  2. Fry lightly in hot butter until golden, then press between two dishes until cold.

Broil and serve

  1. Coat the joints carefully with beaten egg and breadcrumbs.

  2. Broil over a clear fire for 15 to 20 minutes, brushing with warm butter frequently.

  3. Arrange the broiled pheasant in a pyramidal form on a hot dish and serve with sauce in a sauceboat.

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. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pheasant + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Pheasant
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked through by broiling after being pressed into joints.
Butter
Frying gives golden colour and flavour, and brushing during broiling keeps the surface moist and browned.
Egg
Beaten egg acts as a binder so the breadcrumbs adhere to the joints.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns under the broiler.

The step that matters

Pressing the fried joints until cold. Pressing firms the joints and gives them a neat shape, so the egg and breadcrumb coating adheres evenly instead of sliding off during broiling.

“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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