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Broiled Partridge

A roasted partridge served with a sauce of butter, flour, water, cayenne pepper, salt, and mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Broiled Partridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the partridge and wipe it inside and out with a soft clean cloth; do not wash it.

Broil and baste

  1. Broil the partridge over a clear fire, sprinkling it with salt and cayenne pepper.

  2. Rub fresh butter over the partridge immediately after removing it from the fire.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Prepare the sauce by browning butter with flour, then add water, cayenne, salt, and mushroom ketchup.

  2. Pour the sauce over the partridge and serve immediately.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Partridge
Is the main protein; broiling cooks it directly over heat for a browned, savoury surface.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries flavour when rubbed over the hot bird.
Flour
Thickens the sauce when browned in butter, giving it body.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savoury, umami flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Rubbing butter on immediately after broiling. The bird is hot and its surface is ready to absorb fat at once. Waiting lets the meat cool and the butter sit on top rather than soak in, and the juices can dry out.

“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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