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To Roast Partridges

Roasted partridges served on toast with gravy, bread sauce, and browned crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

To Roast Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the birds

  1. Pick, draw, and singe the partridges, leaving the heads on.

  2. Make a slit in the neck and draw out the crop.

  3. Twist the neck around the wing and bring the head to the side of the breast.

  4. Truss the legs and wings similarly to other fowl, leaving the feet crossed.

  5. Place 1 tablespoon of butter, seasoned with pepper and salt, inside each bird.

Roast and serve

  1. Baste well with butter while roasting over a clear fire.

  2. When about halfway done (after 10-15 minutes), dust a little flour over them to brown.

  3. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes total.

  4. Serve on toasted bread, with gravy, browned crumbs, and bread sauce on the 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce 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

Partridges
Provide the lean meat that is the main focus of the dish.
Butter
Bastes the birds and adds richness, moisture and browning during roasting.
Flour (in the method)
Dusted over the birds halfway through to help the surface brown.
Bread sauce
Adds a soft, savoury accompaniment to the roasted birds.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the birds when served.

The step that matters

Basting with butter while roasting. Partridge is very lean, so without regular basting with butter the meat can dry out. Butter carries heat to the surface and helps it brown evenly.

“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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