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An Emince of Pheasant, with Broiled Legs, &C.

Minced pheasant served with broiled legs, cooked with shallots, ham, herbs, stock, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

An Emince of Pheasant, with Broiled Legs, &C.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Score the legs of the pheasant.

  2. Place the trimmings in a stewpan.

  3. Add shallots, ham, thyme, parsley, and stock.

  4. Boil slowly for 30 minutes.

  5. Strain the liquid.

  6. Skim off the fat.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt butter in a stewpan. Add flour and stir for 1-2 minutes.

  2. Add the strained liquid and cream. Bring to a boil.

  3. Squeeze in lemon juice. Season with pepper, salt, and sugar.

Broil and serve

  1. Season the legs with pepper and salt. Broil the legs.

  2. Serve the minced pheasant on a dish with the broiled legs arranged around it.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasant breast
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the minced meat that is served.
Shallots
Add aromatic sweetness and depth to the stock as it simmers.
Flour
Thickens the butter mixture into a roux that gives the sauce body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Stock
Provides the main liquid and savory base for the sauce.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and forms the base of the roux with flour.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the butter. Cooking the flour in melted butter for a minute or two cooks out its raw taste and lets it thicken evenly. Stopping early leaves a pasty flavour, while skipping the stir lets lumps form when the liquid is added.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, shallot, ham, thyme, butter, flour, cream):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, shallot, ham, thyme, butter, flour, cream. 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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