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Soup

A Partridge Soup

A soup made with a knuckle of veal, partridges stuffed with forcemeat, and assorted vegetables, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

A Partridge Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Stew the knuckle of veal until it becomes a strong soup.

Cook the partridges

  1. Stuff the partridges with forcemeat and add them to the soup.

  2. Cook until the partridges are tender but not falling apart.

Season and serve

  1. Add assorted vegetables to enhance flavor.

  2. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

  3. Strain the soup before serving, leaving only 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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Celery + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Veal + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Long stewing releases gelatin and flavor, giving the soup body and a rich, strong taste.
Partridges
Main meat of the dish, cooked gently in the broth until tender.
Forcemeat
Fills the birds, adding richness and moisture as the stuffing cooks.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Cook the partridges until tender but not falling apart. Partridge is lean and cooks quickly, so overcooking dries the meat and makes it stringy and fragile. Stop when the flesh is tender and still holds its shape.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, beef):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, beef. 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.

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