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Game Stewed in Wine

Game stewed slowly in wine with bay leaf, thyme, and optional truffles or mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Game Stewed in Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the game into joints or bone it and divide it.

Assemble and cook

  1. Pack the pieces in a fireproof jar with a lid, layering with thin slices of truffles or mushrooms if using.

  2. Add a morsel of bay leaf and thyme.

  3. Season to taste and pour in enough wine to cover the game.

  4. Seal the jar and cook slowly until the game is tender.

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. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Mushroom + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Thyme + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,349 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Pheasant + thymetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together97 recipes

    Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasant or other game
Is the main protein; slow cooking in wine breaks down its connective tissue until tender.
Wine
Covers the game and adds moisture and acidity that helps tenderise the meat during slow cooking.
Truffles
Adds a concentrated earthy aroma to the finished dish.
Mushrooms
Add savoury depth and moisture to the dish as they cook with the game.

The step that matters

Seal the jar and cook slowly until the game is tender. A tight seal keeps the liquid and aromas in while the meat cooks gently. Slow, low heat breaks down connective tissue gradually; rushing with high heat toughens the meat and dries the liquid. Check tenderness rather than relying only on time.

“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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