Name: Stuffed Partridges
Ingredients: 5 or 6 partridges; 5 or 6 biscuit crumbs; 1 or 2 slices of boiled ham; 1 tablespoon butter; coarse sea salt to taste; pepper to taste; ½ pound butter; 1 pint water

Why it works: Biscuit and pepper work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 841 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Stuffed Partridges

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Dress the partridges as you would a chicken for baking, sprinkling salt inside and out.
Stuff the birds with a mixture of bread crumbs, ham, butter, and seasoning.

Bake

Place the birds in a pan that fits them snugly, rub with butter, and lightly dredge with flour.
Cut ½ pound of butter into the pint of water and pour it over the birds.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C), basting frequently until browned nicely.

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.

Biscuit + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together841 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Biscuit + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,009 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Biscuit + hamtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together64 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges: Form the main body of the dish, cooking through to tender meat.
Biscuit crumbs: Absorb moisture and fill the cavity, giving the stuffing body and texture.
Boiled ham: Adds savory, salty flavor to the stuffing.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and helps the birds brown in the oven.
Flour (in the method): Lightly dredged on the birds to help form a browned surface.

The step that matters

Basting frequently in the hot oven. Basting keeps the surface moist while the fat and liquid in the pan transfer heat, which helps the skin brown evenly without drying the lean partridge meat.

“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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Stuffed Partridges