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Salmis of Plovers, or Lapwings

A dish of roasted plovers or lapwings, cut into pieces and arranged with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,626 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Salmis of Plovers, or Lapwings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plovers

  1. Remove the crop and gizzard from the plovers.

  2. Singe the plovers.

  3. Truss the plovers without drawing them.

Roast

  1. Wrap the plovers in bacon.

  2. Roast the plovers on a spit or in the oven until done.

Carve and finish

  1. Divide each plover into four pieces.

  2. Remove bones and excess skin.

  3. Arrange the pieces in a stewpan with legs underneath and fillets on top.

  4. Glaze with a paste brush.

  5. Keep warm in a bain-marie.

  6. Prepare a little extract from the body bones of the game to finish the dish.

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

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  4. Ham + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 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

Plovers
Provide the main lean game meat, which the bacon and glaze keep moist and flavourful.
Bacon
Bastes the birds as it renders, adding fat, moisture and savoury flavour while roasting.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth to the finished salmi around the pieces.

The step that matters

Roast the plovers until done. Small game birds dry out quickly, and the bacon wrap protects them. Cooking until just done keeps the meat tender, while overcooking makes it tough and dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, ham, mushroom, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, ham, mushroom, egg. 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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