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Partridge a LA Beaconsfield

A stuffed partridge baked or braised with herring, chicken, and a sauce of stock, sherry, and glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Partridge a LA Beaconsfield

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the partridge

  1. Bone the partridge.

  2. Soak the herring in hot water, then remove the skin and bone from the herring.

  3. Pound the herring with butter, cayenne, and anchovy essence.

  4. Spread the herring mixture over the partridge.

  5. Pound the chicken.

  6. Mix the chicken with cream, egg, pepper, and salt.

  7. Spread the mixture over the herring.

  8. Roll up the bird and sew it together.

Cook and make the sauce

  1. Bake or braise the bird.

  2. Combine the bones and liver of the partridge with stock, bay leaf, and clove in a saucepan.

  3. Simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture.

  5. Melt the glaze.

  6. Brush the glaze over the cooked bird.

  7. Add the remaining glaze, sherry, pepper, and salt to the sauce.

Serve

  1. Place the bird in a serving dish.

  2. Pour the sauce around the bird.

  3. Garnish with 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.

  1. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridge
Forms the main body of the dish, which is rolled around the stuffing and cooked whole.
Kippered herring
Adds a strong, smoky, savoury flavour that layers through the stuffing.
Chicken
Forms a binding forcemeat with the egg and cream, giving the stuffing a smooth, set texture.
Egg
Binds the chicken forcemeat so it holds together when cooked.
Cream
Keeps the chicken forcemeat moist and tender as it cooks.
Glaze
Gives the cooked bird a glossy, browned finish and adds sweetness.

The step that matters

Roll up the bird and sew it together. If the rolled bird is loose or poorly sewn, the stuffing can escape during cooking and the layers will not hold their shape. A firm, tight roll keeps the filling inside and cooks it evenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, anchovy, sherry, pepper, potato, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, anchovy, sherry, pepper, potato, butter. 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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