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Partridge a LA Bernaise

Partridges cooked with salad oil, onion, tomato ketchup, sherry, stock, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Partridge a LA Bernaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Truss the partridges for roasting.

  2. Heat the salad oil in a pan and brown the partridges.

  3. Add the chopped onion and cook until softened.

Braise and finish

  1. Pour in the sherry and stock, then season with salt and pepper.

  2. Cook for about 10 minutes until the partridges are done.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together492 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sherry + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Provide the main protein, which is browned first and then cooked through in the liquid.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the sauce, along with a deeper colour.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma, and helps lift flavour from the browned pan.
Stock
Supplies moisture and savoury depth to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Browning the partridges. Searing the birds in hot oil before adding liquid develops browned flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale, crowded birds will steam rather than brown, leaving the sauce flat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, ketchup, sherry, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, ketchup, sherry, pepper. 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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