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Baked Spring Chicken

A baked chicken dish served with a cream or milk gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Spring Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Wash the chicken pieces thoroughly and drain in a colander.

  2. In a dripping pan, heat the lard and butter, then add the chicken pieces.

  3. Pour the hot water around the chicken and steam for 30 minutes.

  4. Turn the chicken to achieve a light brown color.

  5. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

  6. Remove the chicken to a dish and keep warm.

Make the gravy

  1. Add ½ pint of water to the dripping pan on the stove.

  2. Mix the flour with the cream or milk.

  3. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the water.

  4. Cook the gravy thoroughly, stirring constantly to prevent burning, and adjust seasoning if necessary.

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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Chicken
Provides the main protein, which firms and browns as it cooks.
Lard
Adds fat for frying and helps the chicken brown in the pan.
Butter
Adds fat and a rich flavor while helping the chicken brown.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as its starch swells when heated in liquid.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and body to the gravy, softening its flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the gravy thoroughly, stirring constantly. Flour must be stirred continuously and cooked fully. Unstirred flour clumps and scorches on the pan base, and raw flour leaves a pasty taste while thickening only properly once its starch has swelled in the liquid.

“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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