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Boned Squab in Paper Case

A squab roasted in buttered paper after boning and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Boned Squab in Paper Case

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the squab

  1. Singe the squab and remove the pinfeathers.

  2. Wipe the squab with a damp cloth and remove the head.

  3. Draw the tendons from the legs and cut off the feet and lower part of the legs.

  4. Split the bird down the backbone and remove the organs.

  5. Wash the squab thoroughly and cut out the breastbone.

Season and wrap

  1. Season the squab with coarse sea salt and rub with soft butter.

  2. Lay the bird flat, crossing the legs, and fold it in a piece of heavy, well-buttered paper.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the wrapped squab over coals until the paper is charred, about 8-10 minutes.

  2. Serve on toast and garnish with lemon.

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 + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Squab + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Squab + lemontop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Squab
Provides the lean, rich meat that is the centre of the dish.
Soft butter
Adds fat and moisture to the skin and meat, and helps the surface brown.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the bird and draws out some surface moisture for better browning.
Toast
Soaks up juices from the cooked bird and gives a crisp base to serve it on.

The step that matters

Broil the wrapped squab until the paper is charred. The paper protects the bird while the heat from the coals cooks it through and seals in juices. Charring the paper signals that the heat is strong enough to brown the outside. Watching the time matters because a small bird dries out quickly if it is left too long over the fire.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (squab, butter):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against squab, butter. 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.

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