Name: Broiled Cold Chicken
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken; 1 egg, beaten; Seasoned bread crumbs; Neck, feet, and gizzard of the chicken (for gravy); Liver of the chicken (for gravy)

Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Broiled Cold Chicken

Ingredients

1 whole chicken
1 egg, beaten
Seasoned bread crumbs
Neck, feet, and gizzard of the chicken (for gravy)
Liver of the chicken (for gravy)

Directions

Prepare the chicken

Split the chicken down the back.
Dip the chicken into the beaten egg, then coat it with seasoned bread crumbs.

Cook the chicken

Broil the chicken over a clear, gentle fire until cooked through.

Make the gravy

Boil the neck, feet, and gizzard to make gravy.
Simmer the liver for 5 to 10 minutes, then mash it and add to the gravy to thicken.

Serve

Serve the chicken hot.

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.

Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Bread + livertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together731 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Chicken + livertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together383 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + livertop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,177 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg: Helps the seasoned bread crumbs adhere to the chicken as a coating.
Seasoned bread crumbs: Form a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the chicken.
Liver: Mashed into the gravy, it helps thicken it.

“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.