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Roast Partridges

Roasted partridges served on buttered toast with consommé or broth and garnished with watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Roast Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Pluck, draw, and clean the partridges, wiping inside and out with a wet cloth without washing.

  2. Truss the partridges by passing a wooden skewer through the thighs and another through the wings.

  3. Place a slice of pork over the breast of each partridge.

Roast

  1. Put the partridges in a baking pan with butter and boiling water or white wine.

  2. Baste the partridges frequently.

  3. Roast in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 40 minutes.

  4. Remove strings and skewers from the partridges.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Place the partridges on buttered toast on a hot dish.

  2. Add consommé or broth to the pan. Boil the liquid. Strain the liquid.

  3. Pour the strained liquid over the birds.

  4. Garnish with watercress. Serve with a 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. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. White wine + watercresstop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + watercresstop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together842 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
The main protein, cooked whole so the meat stays moist under basting.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the skin brown in the pan.
Consommé or broth
Forms the savory liquid that becomes the sauce poured over the birds.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the pan liquid, if used in place of boiling water.

The step that matters

Baste the partridges frequently. Basting spreads melted fat and pan liquid over the lean breast meat, helping it stay moist and brown evenly during roasting.

“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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