Skip to main content
Main

Partridges, Catalan Fashion

Partridges braised with bacon, ham, garlic, wine, and aromatics.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Partridges, Catalan Fashion

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Truss the partridges as for boiling.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the partridges, chopped bacon, aromatics, and salt.

  3. Fry on moderate heat, turning until nicely colored.

  4. Moisten with wine.

Braise

  1. Braise gently with hot ashes on the lid.

  2. When nearly done, add the diced ham and boiled garlic cloves.

  3. Sprinkle with red Spanish pepper.

  4. Continue cooking for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain the partridges.

  2. Remove strings.

  3. Plate them.

  4. Remove the aromatics.

  5. Skim fat from the cooking stock.

  6. Thicken the stock with a little brown sauce.

  7. Pour over the partridges.

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. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Wine + garlictop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Wine + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-isoeugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Main protein; braising in liquid keeps the lean meat tender and moist.
Chopped bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that renders into the pan and enriches the braising stock.
Raw ham
Contributes salty, savory meat flavor that seasons the braising liquid.
Garlic
Adds mellow, sweet aroma; boiling first softens its sharp bite so the cloves become tender.
Wine
Acidity and aromatic compounds that deglaze the pan and flavor the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Braise gently with hot ashes on the lid. Gentle, even heat from above and below cooks the lean partridge slowly, so the meat becomes tender without drying or toughening. Boiling or fierce heat would tighten the proteins and dry out the birds.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, ham, clove, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes