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Devilled Game

A seasoned game bird with a spicy, mustard-based sauce, baked over a lamp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Devilled Game

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the game bird (woodcock, snipe, or wild duck) and ensure it is underdone.

  2. Mix salt, cayenne pepper, curry powder, and French mustard to create a paste.

  3. Cover the bird inside and out with the spice mixture.

  4. Remove the brains from the head and, if using woodcock, add the trail.

  5. Combine the brains and trail with the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, mace, lemon peel, and sauce.

  6. Add wine, cayenne pepper, sugar, and lemon juice to the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Roll the butter in flour and place the bird and sauce in a metal dish over a lamp.

  2. Cover the dish and shake occasionally until most of the sauce is absorbed.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Ketchup + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Game bird
Provides the main meat, which is cooked gently until most of the sauce is absorbed.
Hard-boiled egg yolk
Adds richness and body to the sauce, helping it cling to the bird.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the gentle cooking.
Wine
Adds liquid and acidity that help build the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the spices and sugar.

The step that matters

Cook gently and shake occasionally until most of the sauce is absorbed. Covered, gentle heat keeps the bird from drying out while the sauce reduces. Too much heat or an uncovered dish can scorch the sauce or toughen the meat, so the cook should watch it closely.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mustard, egg, lemon, ketchup, wine, sugar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mustard, egg, lemon, ketchup, wine, sugar. 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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