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Broiled Partridge

Broiled partridge served with brown mushroom sauce or bread‑crumb coating.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Broiled Partridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the partridge and wipe it inside and out without washing.

Broil and finish

  1. Broil it delicately over a clear fire, sprinkling with salt and cayenne.

  2. Rub fresh butter over it immediately after removing from the fire.

  3. Alternatively, dip the dressed partridge in clarified butter, then in bread crumbs.

  4. Broil gently for 20 to 30 minutes and serve with brown mushroom sauce.

Make the sauce

  1. Serve with a sauce made from browned flour, water, cayenne, salt, and mushroom ketchup.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Partridge
Is the main protein that is split and broiled, forming the body of the dish.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and moisture when rubbed over the bird just after cooking.
Flour
Browned to thicken and colour the sauce, giving it body and a deeper flavour.
Clarified butter
Coats the bird in an alternative finish, adding fat that helps the crumbs brown.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on the outside of the bird when used as a coating.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Broil gently. Gentle heat cooks the lean partridge through without drying it out, while a clear fire with steady heat gives even browning. Too fierce a flame scorches the outside before the centre is cooked.

“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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