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Fowl and Stuffing

A fowl stuffed with seasoned bread crumbs and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fowl and Stuffing

Oven, in the book's wordsThe hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “the hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Season the bread crumbs with salt, pepper, thyme, melted butter, and enough water to slightly moisten them.

  2. Stuff the bird with the seasoned crumbs.

  3. Rub the legs and breast of the bird with oil or drippings.

Roast

  1. Place the bird in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) to brown.

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 + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Bread + thymetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,993 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Thyme + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,758 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the stuffing, absorbing butter and moisture to keep the filling tender.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness to the crumbs and helps them brown in the oven.
Oil or drippings
Coats the skin of the bird so it browns and crisps in the hot oven.

The step that matters

Moisten the crumbs only slightly. Crumbs with too much water turn soggy and pasty inside the bird and dilute the butter's flavour. Just enough moisture lets the crumbs soften while staying loose and light.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, pepper, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, butter. 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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