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Pheasants, Partridges, &C

A stew of pheasants and partridges simmered with onion, herbs, and gravy, finished with sherry, lemon, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pheasants, Partridges, &C

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine game scraps, minced onion, sweet herbs, water, and gravy in a saucepan.

  2. Stew covered for nearly an hour.

  3. If you have no gravy, add a few bits of pork.

  4. Skim the mixture.

  5. Strain the mixture.

Finish the sauce

  1. Return the strained mixture to the fire.

  2. Add brown sherry, lemon juice, and nutmeg.

  3. Thicken with brown flour if needed.

  4. Boil briefly.

Serve

  1. Pour over the reserved meat in another saucepan.

  2. Warm until smoking hot, but do not let it boil.

  3. Arrange the pieces of bird on a dish and pour the gravy over them.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Onion + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Sherry + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,246 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Game bird scraps
Provide the main meaty flavour that gives the stock its character.
Brown flour
Thickens the strained liquid into a body-rich sauce that clings to the meat.
Brown sherry
Adds sweetness and a rich, aromatic depth to the finished gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the gravy.
Pork
Adds extra savoury meat flavour to the stock when no gravy is available.

The step that matters

Warm until smoking hot, but do not let it boil. Boiling the thickened sauce after the flour is added can cause it to break, turn lumpy, or thin out, so it should be heated gently.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sherry, lemon, nutmeg, flour):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sherry, lemon, nutmeg, flour. 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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