Why it works: Butter and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Broiled Grouse
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the grouse like chicken.
Cook slowly over moderate heat, ensuring it remains juicy.
Check for doneness by cutting; there should be no raw color.
Keep the bone side facing the heat, turning for a minute at a time to avoid burning.
Serve with butter, coarse sea salt, and black pepper.
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.
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Grouse
- Provides the lean meat that is cooked and served as the main dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the finished meat at serving.
The step that matters
Keep the bone side facing the heat and turn in one-minute intervals. Turning the bird briefly and often lets heat reach the meat evenly while the exposed surface is kept from scorching. Cooking slowly over moderate heat also keeps the lean meat from drying out before the centre is cooked through.
“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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