Name: For Roasted or Boiled Fowl
Ingredients: half pint cream; a large bunch of celery; a good piece of butter rolled in flour; a spoonful of worcestershire sauce; one glass white wine; mace; nutmeg; pepper; salt

Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

For Roasted or Boiled Fowl

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery

Wash a large bunch of celery very clean.
Cut the celery into thin bits.
Boil the celery slowly in a little water until it is tender.

Make the sauce

Add beaten mace, nutmeg, pepper, and salt, and a good piece of butter rolled in flour.
Boil all together.
If desired, add half pint cream, one glass white wine, and a spoonful of Worcestershire sauce.
Pour the sauce into the dish.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

666Calories

15 gProtein

19 gFat

101 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Mace	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. See the original page.

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.

Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,331 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Rolled in flour, it thickens the sauce and adds richness and body.
Cream: Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
White wine: Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich sauce.
Celery: Adds vegetable flavour and body to the sauce once boiled soft.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, celery, butter, flour, sauce, white wine, nutmeg):

Tarragonfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Parsleyfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, celery, butter, flour, sauce, white wine, nutmeg. 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.