Skip to main content
Main

Cailles Au Petit Pois

A French dish of quails cooked with ham, veal, carrot, onion, herbs, lard, and served with a pea ragout.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 21,601 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cailles Au Petit Pois

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Draw and prepare the quails.

  2. Cover the bottom of a stewpan with slices of ham, veal, carrot, onion, and sweet herbs.

  3. Cover the quails with slices of lard and a round of paper.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the quails and place fire under and over the stewpan.

  2. When done, drain the quails and serve with a ragout of peas.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together3,015 recipes

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

  5. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together3,264 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

Quails
The main protein, which becomes tender and moist when gently simmered in a covered pan.
Slices of ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the braising base that seasons the quails.
Slices of veal
Adds meaty richness and body to the braising base, enriching the cooking liquid.
Slices of lard
Adds fat that bastes the quails and keeps the meat moist during cooking.
Ragout of peas
Provides a sweet, fresh-tasting vegetable accompaniment that balances the rich meat.

Flavor stand-ins for the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, ham, veal, carrot, onion):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Lentilsbetter flavor fit
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Chestnutabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, ham, veal, carrot, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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

Green PeasGreen Peas229 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesGreen Peas SoupGreen Peas Soup35 recipes