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Partridges En Crepine

Partridges en Crepine is a dish of partridges stewed in veal broth and wine, then stuffed, coated in egg whites and puff pastry, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Basil and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,768 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Partridges En Crepine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone and stew the partridges until half cooked with veal broth, white wine, onion, basil, thyme, garlic, pepper, salt, lemon juice, cloves, and bay leaf.

  2. Remove the birds from the liquid and strain it into a good cullis.

  3. Once the birds are cool, stuff each with light forcemeat.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the birds with the beaten egg whites and garnish with puff pastry as desired.

  2. Bake until golden brown and serve with the reduced sauce underneath.

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. Basil + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Basil + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Provide the main meat, which is partly cooked by stewing before baking.
Egg whites
Beaten to a froth and brushed on, they help the pastry brown and set a glossy finish.
Veal broth
Gives the stewing liquid body and savour, which becomes the base of the sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the stewing liquid and the resulting sauce.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, golden crust that encloses the birds.

The step that matters

Brush the birds with the beaten egg whites. Egg white forms a thin, set coating that helps the pastry brown evenly and gives a glossy finish, so it should be fully whipped to a solid froth before brushing.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, white wine, basil, thyme, clove, garlic, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, white wine, basil, thyme, clove, garlic, 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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