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Quails, a LA Royale

A braised and fried quail dish stuffed with quenelle force‑meat, served with d'Uxelles sauce and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Quails, a LA Royale

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quails

  1. Stuff the quails with quenelle force-meat.

  2. Truss the quails.

  3. Place the quails in a stewpan with sliced carrot, onion, cloves, and parsley.

  4. Moisten the quails with 1 pint of white broth.

  5. Cover the quails with buttered paper.

  6. Braise gently for 45 minutes.

  7. Allow the quails to cool in their own liquor.

  8. Remove the quails and place them on a dish to cool completely.

  9. Remove the strings from the quails.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat the quails with d'Uxelles sauce.

  2. Let the sauce set.

  3. Roll the quails in bread crumbs.

  4. Dip the quails in beaten egg.

  5. Coat the quails with bread crumbs again.

  6. Fry the quails in hot hog's lard until light brown.

  7. Drain the quails.

Serve

  1. Serve the quails on a border of quenelle force-meat.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

Quails
Form the main body of the dish, cooked gently by braising so the meat stays moist.
Quenelle force-meat
Fills the birds and forms the border, giving a soft, delicate, savoury texture.
D'uxelles sauce
Creates a thick coating that holds the breadcrumbs and adds savoury richness.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Beaten egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the coated quails so the crust adheres during frying.

The step that matters

Fry the quails in hot hog's lard until light brown. The fat must be hot enough to crisp the breadcrumb crust quickly; if it is too cool, the coating absorbs grease and turns soggy before it browns.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, meat, carrot, onion, parsley, sauce, bread):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, meat, carrot, onion, parsley, sauce, bread. 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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