Name: Pheasant Pudding
Ingredients: 2 pheasants, cut into pieces; a little stock; 2 glasses of sherry; salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Sherry and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Pheasant Pudding

Ingredients

2 pheasants, cut into pieces
a little stock
2 glasses of sherry
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Make the essence

Put the backs of the pheasants into a stewpan with a little stock.
Simmer to draw a good essence, then strain.

Assemble and cook

Add 2 glasses of sherry and season the pieces.
Combine everything in a pudding basin.
Finish and boil for about 2 hours.

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.

Sherry + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Pheasant + peppertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together462 recipes

Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).
Pheasant + sherrytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasants: Provides the main meat, whose proteins firm and become tender during long, gentle cooking.
Stock: Adds moisture and savoury depth while the pheasant backs simmer into an essence.
Sherry: Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich meat flavour.

“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.