Name: Partridges with Truffles
Ingredients: 3 or 4 partridges; truffles; good braise; good brown sauce; 1 lemon

Why it works: Truffle and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,490 recipes. The science ↓

Partridges with Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the partridges by stuffing them with truffles.
Prepare a few truffles and mix them in good brown sauce.

Cook and serve

Instead of roasting, stew the partridges in good braise.
Squeeze the lemon into the sauce.
When very hot, pour the sauce over the partridges.

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.

Truffle + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,490 recipes
Truffle + lemontop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together860 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Sauce + lemontop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,598 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 stewed rather than roasted, so it becomes tender.
Truffles: Add a strong earthy aroma that flavours both the birds and the sauce.
Lemon: Adds acidity that brightens the rich brown sauce.