Why it works: Pepper and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Gravy for Partridges
Ingredients
Directions
Bruise the remains of the cold roasted partridge.
Boil the bruised partridge with enough water or unflavored broth to make gravy.
Season the gravy with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper, or add mushrooms for flavor.
Optionally, add a little eschalot and a few herbs to the gravy.
Serve the gravy with boiled or broiled partridges.
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.
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Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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