Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Broiled Chicken on Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the chicken
Broil the chicken until thoroughly cooked.
Remove the chicken and place it in a square tin or dripping pan.
Butter the chicken well and season with salt and pepper.
Return the chicken to the oven for a few minutes.
Make the toast and gravy
Moisten and butter the slices of bread and lay them on a platter.
Add cream or milk to the gravy in the pan.
Thicken the gravy with flour and pour it over the chicken.
Serve
Place the chicken on top of the toast.
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 + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,258 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the chicken brown and taste savoury as it cooks.
- Flour
- Thickens the pan juices into a smooth gravy.
- Cream or milk
- Adds moisture and richness to the gravy, mellowing its flavour.
- Bread
- Forms the base that soaks up the buttery juices under the chicken.
The step that matters
Thicken the gravy with flour. Flour must be cooked into the hot pan juices, or it stays lumpy and tastes raw. Stir well so it thickens evenly before the cream or milk is fully incorporated.
“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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