Skip to main content
Main

Broiled Partridge

A partridge roasted over a clear fire, seasoned with salt and pepper, coated in butter and breadcrumbs, served with brown mushroom or Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Broiled Partridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the partridge by dividing and flattening it.

  2. Season the bird with coarse sea salt and black or cayenne pepper.

Coat

  1. Dip the partridge in clarified butter, then coat it with fine bread crumbs, ensuring even coverage.

  2. For a better appearance, dip it a second time in butter and crumbs.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the partridge over a clear fire for 20 to 30 minutes.

  2. Serve with brown mushroom sauce or Espagnole sauce.

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

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

  3. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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, cooked through by the broiler's direct heat.
Clarified butter
Carries fat that helps the crumbs brown and gives a rich, golden crust.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating that protects the meat from drying.

The step that matters

Even crumb coating. Gaps in the butter and crumb layer leave bare meat that dries and scorches under direct heat. A second dip, as the record suggests, builds a more even, protective crust.

“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

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipes