Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Salmis of Partridges, a LA Perigord
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the partridges as directed.
Chop the trimmings and use them to make the sauce.
Cut out 12 small heart-shaped croutons of bread about ¼ inch thick.
Make an incision around the inside edges, fry them in butter, and empty them.
Fill the cavities with some pork of truffles.
Assemble and serve
Warm the salmis with a little of the sauce.
Dish it up to form a well in the center.
Place 6 croutons around the top, fill the center with small quenelles of partridges, and pour the sauce over the salmis.
Garnish the base with the remaining croutons and serve.
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.
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Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,260 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
-
White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,832 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Partridges
- Form the main body of the dish as the meat being cooked in the salmis.
- French white wine
- Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce, balancing the rich game flavour.
- Good consomme
- Provides savoury liquid that moistens and flavours the salmis.
- Espagnole sauce
- Thickens and enriches the sauce, giving body and depth of flavour.
- Anchovy butter
- Adds savoury, salty depth to the sauce with a rounded richness.
The step that matters
Make the incision and fry the croutons. Frying bread in butter browns and crisps it, giving a sturdy shell that holds the truffle filling. If the bread is cut too thin or fried too long, it can break or burn before serving.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, sauce, anchovy, butter, bread, pork, truffle):
- Applefits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Plumfits about as well
- Grapefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, sauce, anchovy, butter, bread, pork, truffle. 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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