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Pheasant, Cutlets of

Pheasant cutlets are breaded pheasant pieces fried and served with Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pheasant, Cutlets of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Divide the pheasant into neat joints and remove the bones, keeping the flesh intact.

  2. Season, flatten, and trim each piece of pheasant, folding the skin under to shape it.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat each piece first with egg, then with breadcrumbs seasoned with salt and pepper.

  2. Fry gently in hot fat or butter until cooked and well browned, about 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Drain well, insert a small bone in each cutlet, add a frill, and serve with the sauce poured around.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pheasant + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  4. Pheasant + peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together462 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  5. Pheasant + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together511 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 cutlets; its lean flesh is the main body of the dish.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the breadcrumbs stick to the meat.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when fried.
Butter or frying fat
Conducts heat to brown the coating and cook the meat.
Espagnole sauce
Adds a rich, savoury brown sauce that complements the pheasant.

The step that matters

Frying gently in hot fat. Lean pheasant dries out quickly if overcooked. Gentle frying in hot fat lets the interior cook through while the breadcrumb coating browns, rather than scorching outside and leaving the meat dry inside.

“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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