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Pheasant-mince

A minced pheasant dish flavored with onion, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, wine, broth, parsley, pepper, Harvey sauce, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pheasant-mince

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and extract

  1. Remove the skin from the cooked pheasant and cut the meat into slices.

  2. Place the sliced meat in a medium-sized stewpan and cover.

  3. Break up the bones.

  4. Add the bones to another stewpan with minced vegetables, ham trimmings, parsley, white wine, and broth.

  5. Simmer to prepare a pheasant extract.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate stewpan, fry the chopped onion until soft.

  2. Add the mushroom trimmings and cook until they release moisture.

  3. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the mushrooms.

  4. Moisten with the prepared extract.

  5. Simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the pheasant pieces to the sauce.

  2. Warm gently without boiling.

  3. Stir in the pepper, chopped parsley, Harvey sauce, and lemon juice before serving.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked pheasant meat
Provides the main meaty body and texture of the mince.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and thicken the sauce so it holds together.
Mushroom trimmings
Release moisture and add earthy savory flavor to the sauce.
Onion
Softens during frying to build a sweet, aromatic base.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and sauce.

The step that matters

Warm gently without boiling. Boiling toughens the protein in cooked meat, making the slices dry and stringy. Gentle heat keeps them tender and juicy while the sauce warms through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pheasant, mushroom, white wine, parsley, pepper, sauce):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pheasant, mushroom, white wine, parsley, pepper, 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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