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Pheasant,Potted,a LA Finch

A preserved dish of cooked pheasant and rabbit mixed with butter, brown sauce, and Madcira, set in glass molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pheasant and rabbit share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 55 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Pheasant,Potted,a LA Finch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pâté

  1. Pound the cooked pheasant, rabbit, and butter together.

  2. Mix the brown sauce and Madcira, adding them gradually while pounding.

Serve

  1. Fill glass molds or small deep dishes with the mixture.

  2. Serve on a flat dish with lace paper or a folded napkin, garnished with cress or salad.

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. Pheasant + rabbittop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Rabbit + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pheasant + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the potted mixture a smooth, spreadable texture.
Cooked pheasant
Provides the main meat body and flavor of the potted mixture.
Rabbit
Adds bulk and mild game flavor to the pounded meat.
Madcira
Adds wine-based sweetness and depth of flavor to the mixture.
Rich brown sauce
Contributes savory depth and color to the mixture.

The step that matters

Adding the brown sauce and Madcira gradually. Adding liquid slowly while pounding lets the butter and meat absorb it evenly. Adding it all at once can make the mixture watery or split it, so it fails to hold together smoothly.

“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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