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Partridges a LA Perigueux

Partridges stuffed with truffles and butter, cooked in ham fat with carrot, onion, herbs, salt, Cayenne, Sherry, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon 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 ↓

Partridges a LA Perigueux

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stuff the partridges with chopped truffles and fresh butter.

  2. In a stewpan, place the fat from dressed ham or veal kidney.

  3. Add the sliced carrot, chopped onion, dried herbs, salt, and Cayenne pepper.

  4. Lay the partridges breast down on the mixture and cover with ham fat.

Cook

  1. Warm thoroughly, then add Sherry and lemon juice.

  2. Set the stewpan on the side of the fire, cover with embers, and simmer gently for 45 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the sauce and pour it hot over the birds.

  2. Serve in a deep dish.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
The main meat, which becomes tender and juicy as it simmers gently in the fat.
Truffles
Contribute a strong earthy aroma that perfumes the birds and the sauce.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavour into the meat.
Fat from dressed ham or veal kidney
Provides savoury fat that bastes the birds and enriches the sauce.
Sherry
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the sauce as it reduces.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich fats and balances the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer gently over embers for 45 minutes. Gentle, low heat lets the connective tissue and fibres in the partridges relax slowly. Too much heat toughens the meat and can break the fat into the sauce, leaving the birds dry and the sauce greasy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, butter, ham, carrot, onion, pepper, sherry):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, butter, ham, carrot, onion, pepper, sherry. 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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