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Broiled Chickens

Broiled Chickens are whole chickens seasoned, coated in egg yolk and breadcrumbs, and broiled over coals.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Broiled Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the chickens down the back and wipe the inside.

  2. Season the inside with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Prepare a mixture of beaten egg yolks and bread crumbs.

  4. Dip the outside of the chickens in the mixture.

Broil and finish

  1. Place the chickens on a clean gridiron over bright coals, inside down.

  2. Broil for 20 minutes.

  3. Just before removing from the fire, add bits of butter.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

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

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the main protein that cooks through over the coals.
Egg yolks
Bind the bread crumbs to the skin and help it brown during broiling.
Bread crumbs
Form a coating that crisps and adds texture to the outside.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, moistening the meat and flavoring the surface near the end.

The step that matters

Dip the outside of the chickens in the mixture.. An even, thin coat of egg and crumb sets and browns evenly. Clumps or a thick layer can burn or stay pasty, so the coat should cling without dripping off.

“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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