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To Steio Partridges

A stew of partridges with bacon, butter, gravy, cabbage, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Steio Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Truss the partridges with wings over the back and legs drawn in.

Brown and stew

  1. In a stewpan, fry the bacon until brown with the butter.

  2. Add the partridges and turn them until very brown, ensuring bacon is on the breast.

  3. Add the gravy and meat/vegetable trimmings.

  4. Slice the boiled cabbage and mix with butter, pepper, and salt.

  5. Add the cabbage to the partridges and let them stew gently for an hour, turning frequently.

Serve

  1. Serve with bacon underneath and the cabbage around, ensuring the sauce is skimmed.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Pork + meattop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Walnut + cabbagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Form the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful as it browns and stews.
Pork or bacon
Adds savoury fat and salty, smoky flavour as it browns in the pan.
Gravy
Provides liquid for stewing, carrying flavour and keeping the meat moist.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and mild sweetness, soaking up the rich flavours of the stew.

The step that matters

Browning the partridges. Deep browning builds the Maillard flavours that give the stew its colour and depth. Pale meat at this stage leads to a flat, dull sauce.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, walnut, meat, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, walnut, meat, 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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