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Broiled Partridge

Broiled partridges coated in butter and breadcrumbs, seasoned with salt and cayenne, served with piquante sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 partridges down the back and wash them inside and out with a soft towel.

Coat

  1. Dip the partridges into melted butter.

  2. Roll the partridges in bread crumbs.

  3. Repeat dipping and rolling.

Broil and serve

  1. Lay the partridges, inside down, on a well-heated grill, turning them once.

  2. Season with a little coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

  3. When done, serve with piquante sauce.

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 + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Partridges
Serve as the main protein, cooked whole after being split open.
Melted butter
Adds fat and moisture so the bread crumb coating browns and stays tender.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned coating that helps hold in moisture during grilling.
Cayenne pepper
Adds a sharp, spicy heat to the outside of the birds.

The step that matters

Lay the partridges inside down on a well-heated grill. A hot grill sears the buttered crumb coating quickly, browning it before the meat dries out. Turning only once helps keep the coating intact and the birds moist.

“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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