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Dessert

Purée of Partridge, with Croûtons

A purée of cooked partridge meat and livers, seasoned with salt and nutmeg, served with glazed croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Purée of Partridge, with Croûtons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the purée

  1. Cut the meat of the partridges.

  2. Pound the cut meat with butter and cold sauce.

  3. Season the meat with salt and nutmeg.

  4. Pass the seasoned meat through a sieve into a basin.

  5. Pound the partridges' livers with the chickens' livers.

  6. Sieve the livers.

  7. Add the livers and melted glaze to the purée.

Shape and glaze

  1. Shape the purée into a dome.

  2. Mask one side of the dome with glaze.

  3. Arrange the croutons on the lid of a stewpan.

  4. Moisten the croutons with sauce.

  5. Keep the croutons near the oven to glaze.

Heat and serve

  1. Heat the purée gently without boiling.

  2. Stir in a few tablespoons of sauce until it reaches a good consistency.

  3. Dish the purée in a dome shape.

  4. Baste the purée with sauce or glaze.

  5. Surround the purée with the garnished croutons.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 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

Partridge meat
Forms the smooth body of the purée once cooked and sieved.
Livers
Add rich, savoury depth and a firmer, more structured texture to the purée.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and a silky mouthfeel.
Glaze
Adds savoury richness and a glossy, browned finish to the surface.

The step that matters

Heat the purée gently without boiling. Boiling a smooth purée containing butter and eggs-free emulsified fats can make it separate and turn grainy, so gentle heat keeps it silky.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, sauce, liver, chicken, bread):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, sauce, liver, chicken, 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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