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Partridge and Cabbage

A roasted partridge served inside boiled cabbage with carrots, onions, salt pork, and bouquet garni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Partridge and Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Clean the cabbage, cut it into 4 parts, and wash it in cold water.

  2. Remove the root of the cabbage.

  3. Boil the cabbage in salted water for 5 minutes, then drain it.

Prepare the partridges

  1. Singe, draw and wipe the partridges.

  2. Truss the partridges with wings inside.

  3. Place the partridges on a roasting pan with a pinch of salt and spread them with butter.

  4. Roast the partridges for 6 minutes.

Braise and serve

  1. Return the cabbage to the saucepan with the carrot, onion, salt pork, bouquet garni, white broth, and lean stock.

  2. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

  3. Make a hollow space in the center of the cabbage and place the partridges inside.

  4. Cover the cabbage with buttered paper and put the lid on the cabbage.

  5. Cook in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour.

  6. Remove the lid and take off the paper.

  7. Skim off any fat.

  8. Dress the cabbage on a hot dish.

  9. Untruss the partridges and arrange them artistically with the carrots and salt pork.

  10. Serve 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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and, after slow cooking, becomes soft and absorbs the flavour of the broth.
Partridges
Provide the main meat; roasting and then gentle oven cooking keep the flesh tender and moist.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour that seasons the cabbage and broth as it cooks.
White broth
Provides the cooking liquid that gently braises the cabbage and partridges.
Lean stock
Adds body and savoury depth to the cooking liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and promotes browning on the surface of the partridges.

The step that matters

Cook in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour. Covering the pot and keeping the heat low lets the tough meat of old birds become tender through slow moisture-based cooking, while a higher heat would dry the flesh out.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, clove, pork, pepper, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, clove, pork, pepper, butter. 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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