Why it works: Pepper and butter 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
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Split the grouse down the back and lard the breast.
Season the inside and outside with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Bake and brown
Place in a pan and cover with another inverted pan.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes.
Transfer to a broiler and brown.
Melt a good-sized piece of butter in the pan used for baking and pour over the birds.
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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Pepper + buttertop 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
- Is the main protein, cooked whole so the meat stays moist under cover.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and helps the skin brown and flavour the birds.
The step that matters
Transfer to a broiler and brown. Browning under high heat after the covered baking sets the skin's colour and flavour. Watch closely, because the surface can scorch before the meat is done.
“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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