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Honey-Poppy Seed Cornish Hens

"This is a delicious dish that serves well with curried vegetables."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Honey and poppy seed work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 91 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep15 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 400°F (205°C). Pat the Cornish hens dry with paper towels and season them inside and out with the salt and black pepper.

  2. In a small bowl, stir the honey, poppy seeds, mustard powder and ground ginger until smooth.

  3. Place the hens breast side up in a roasting pan or baking dish with space between them.

  4. Roast the hens for 30 minutes.

  5. Brush the hens with half of the honey mixture and roast for 15 minutes.

  6. Brush with the remaining honey mixture and roast 15 more minutes, until the skin is golden.

  7. Check the thickest part of the thigh with a meat thermometer. It must reach 165°F (74°C); roast longer if needed.

  8. Let the hens rest for 5 minutes, then halve or serve each hen whole with the pan juices spooned over.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Honey + poppy seedtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Pepper + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,799 recipes

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

  3. Honey + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15,427 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,456 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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, honey, poppy seed, ginger):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, honey, poppy seed, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).