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Quails, with Stewed Peas

A dish of boiled quail served with stewed peas and a bacon-infused sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Quails, with Stewed Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the quails

  1. Truss the quails like chickens for boiling.

  2. Place them in a stewpan with the bacon and parsley.

  3. Cover the quails with thin layers of bacon.

  4. Moisten the quails with white wine mirepoix.

  5. Braise gently for 45 minutes.

Prepare the peas

  1. Prepare the stewed peas.

  2. Finish the peas with a bit of mirepoix.

Arrange and serve

  1. Arrange the quails in a circle with breasts facing out.

  2. Fill the center with stewed peas.

  3. Place a piece of bacon between each quail.

  4. Pour sauce around and over the quails.

  5. Serve.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. White wine + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together281 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Quails
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through gentle braising.
Streaky bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that bastes the quails as they cook.
White wine mirepoix
Adds moisture and aromatic flavour to the braising liquid and sauce.
Stewed peas
Provides a starchy, soft side that absorbs the savoury juices.

The step that matters

Braise gently for 45 minutes. Gentle, low heat keeps the quail tender and moist; a hard boil toughens the muscle fibres and dries the meat.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, parsley, white wine, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, parsley, white wine, pepper. 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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