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Pheasant in Fillets

Pheasant fillets cooked quickly in clarified butter, served with a hot butter sauce and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 in Fillets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fillets of the pheasant breast into three thin slices.

  2. Heat clarified butter in a pan.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the slices and cook over high heat for 1 minute, turning them to avoid browning.

  2. Drain the fillets from the butter and arrange them in a star shape on a plate.

  3. Pour hot butter sauce over the fillets and squeeze half a lemon into the sauce.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  4. Pheasant + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together511 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pheasant + lemontop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together163 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

Fillets of pheasant breast
Forms the main protein; thin slices cook quickly and stay tender over high heat.
Clarified butter
Cooking fat that carries high heat without burning, giving the slices a light sear.
Butter sauce
Adds richness and moisture, coating the fillets so they do not dry out.
1/2 lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the buttery sauce and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Cook the slices for only 1 minute over high heat. Thin pheasant slices overcook and toughen quickly, and turning them keeps the surface from browning too much before the centre is done.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, butter, sauce):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Apricotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, butter, sauce. 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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