Why it works: Flour and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,078 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
To Boil Fowls
Ingredients
Directions
Dust the fowls well with flour.
Place them in a kettle of cold water and cover it tightly.
Set the kettle on the fire.
When the scum begins to rise, remove it.
Let the fowls boil very slowly for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat, cover tightly, and let them stew in the hot water for 30 minutes.
Drain the fowls and pour over them white sauce or melted butter.
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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Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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