Name: Salmi of Partridge
Ingredients: 1 cold partridge, cut into joints; 2 tablespoons salad oil; 3 tablespoons claret; 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Croutons of fried bread, for garnish; Mashed potatoes, for serving

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Salmi of Partridge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, combine the partridge joints, salad oil, claret, grated lemon rind, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
Cook over medium heat until thoroughly hot.

Serve

Serve garnished with croutons of fried bread and alongside mashed potatoes.

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.

Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lemon + potatotop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,230 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together434 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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: Provides the main meat, which is cooked gently in the warm claret mixture until heated through.
Claret: Adds wine flavour and acidity to the sauce as it heats with the partridge.
Salad oil: Carries fat and helps distribute the flavours of the lemon, wine and seasoning.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the wine sauce.