Name: Quails, Roasted
Ingredients: Quails; Vine leaves; Small slices of fat bacon; Square croutons of buttered toast; Good brown gravy; Fried breadcrumbs; Watercress butter for basting

Why it works: Quail and watercress work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Quails, Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

Pluck the quails, remove the head, neck, and crop, but leave the trail.
Truss the quails for roasting and brush them with warm butter.
Cover each breast with a vine leaf and tie a piece of bacon over the leaf.
Skewer the quails with a long steel skewer through the body of each bird.
Roast or bake for 12 to 15 minutes, basting frequently with hot butter.
When cooked, remove the skewers and strings; the bacon and vine leaves can be served or removed.
If not removed, brush the bacon with warm glaze.
Serve the quails on the buttered toast to catch the drippings, garnish with watercress, and serve with gravy.

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.

Quail + watercresstop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together35 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Quail + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together512 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Watercress + buttertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together842 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).