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A roasted fowl seasoned with herbs, bread crumbs, and spices, baked in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Thoroughly draw the fowl and rinse it with water mixed with baking soda.

  2. Singe off any hairs using a lighted paper.

  3. Stuff the fowl with bread crumbs, salt, pepper, thyme, sage, and onion if desired.

  4. Sew up the opening with a coarse needle and thread.

Roast

  1. Place the fowl in a pan with 1 cup of water.

  2. Dredge the fowl with flour before roasting.

  3. Baste often and roast for about 15 minutes per pound.

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Dredging the fowl helps form a coating that promotes browning and a crisp exterior.
Bread crumbs
Fill the cavity, absorbing juices and adding moisture and body to the stuffing.
Baking soda
Rinsing with a small amount alkalizes the skin surface, which can aid browning and tenderness.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, pepper, thyme, sage, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, thyme, sage, 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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