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A Pheasant

A pheasant roasted or stewed, seasoned with coarse sea salt, mace, cayenne pepper, and served with Oxford sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

A Pheasant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the head from the pheasant and let it cool slightly.

  2. Sprinkle the inside of the bird with a mixture of coarse sea salt, mace, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Secure the tongue with a skewer and tape.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil or stew the pheasant until extremely tender, covering it with good stock.

  2. Glaze the head and serve with rich brown gravy or preferred sauces.

  3. For a cold dish, serve with Oxford sauce mixed to taste.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasant
Is the main protein, becoming tender through long, gentle moist cooking.
Good stock or strong broth
Keeps the bird moist and adds savory depth while it simmers.
Oxford sauce
Adds sweetness, acidity and tang to the cold dish.

The step that matters

Boil or stew the pheasant until extremely tender, covering it with good stock.. Pheasant is lean and its meat can turn dry and tough if cooked too hard or too fast. Gentle, covered simmering in liquid breaks down connective tissue and keeps the meat moist.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, pepper, sauce, sugar, vinegar, mustard):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, pepper, sauce, sugar, vinegar, mustard. 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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