Why it works: Pheasant and beef work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 131 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Curry of Old Cock-Pheasant
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Hang the cock-pheasant in the larder until ready to cook.
Stuff the pheasant with veal stuffing and chopped beef suet.
Rub the outside with salt.
Sprinkle curry powder over the stuffed pheasant.
Cook
Stew the pheasant until tender, allowing the flesh to fall off the bones.
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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Pheasant + beeftop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together131 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,784 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Pheasant + vealtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together132 recipes
Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cock-pheasant
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
- Veal stuffing
- Fills the cavity, adding moisture and flavour to the bird as it cooks.
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that keeps the stuffing and meat moist during stewing.
- Curry powder
- Gives the dish its spiced aroma and flavour.
The step that matters
Stew the pheasant until tender. Pheasant is lean and an old bird has tough connective tissue. Slow, moist cooking breaks down collagen so the flesh becomes tender. Stopping too early leaves it chewy.
“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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