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Pheasants, a LA Dauphestoise

Pheasants braised and baked with wine mirepoix, Allemande sauce, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, and clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pheasants, a LA Dauphestoise

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Braise the pheasants

  1. Braise the trussed pheasants in wine mirepoix until done.

  2. Remove the pheasants and draw the strings.

  3. Let the pheasants cool partially.

Coat and prepare for baking

  1. Cover the pheasants with reduced Allemande sauce mixed with half the mirepoix.

  2. Allow the sauce to cool.

  3. Coat the pheasants with a mixture of bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese.

  4. Place the pheasants in a buttered baking dish and add the remaining mirepoix to moisten the bottom.

  5. Sprinkle with clarified butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes, basting frequently.

  2. Serve the pheasants side by side.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Wine + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,004 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasants
Form the main body of the dish, cooked tender by braising before baking.
Allemande sauce
Provides a rich, creamy coating that moistens the birds and carries flavour under the crust.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the crumb coating brown in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns and gives texture over the creamy sauce.
Clarified butter
Adds fat that promotes even browning and a golden, crisp surface.

The step that matters

Let the sauce cool before coating. A warm sauce runs off the birds and a hot, thin layer can slide away. Cooling lets it thicken and cling evenly so the crumb coating adheres.

“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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