Why it works: Veal and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,886 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roast Fowl
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fowl
Pluck and singe the fowl.
Make a cut in the leg above the toes and draw the sinews, then cut off the feet.
Scald and scrape the legs.
Cut off the head, leaving a long neck skin.
Cut the neck skin up the back and remove the crop, neck, and windpipe.
Loosen the insides carefully without breaking the gall bladder.
Remove the gizzard, lungs, and wipe out the cavity without washing unless necessary.
Make a slit in the skin above the vent and pull the tail through.
Stuff and truss
Stuff the breast with veal forcemeat and fold the neck skin over.
Truss the fowl by folding the wings back and pressing the legs against the body.
Use a trussing needle to secure the wings and legs.
Roast and serve
Place slices of fat bacon on the breast, cover with greased paper, and place on a trivet in a tin with melted dripping.
Roast for 1 to 1.5 hours, basting frequently.
Remove the paper and bacon, baste again, dredge with flour, and return to a hot oven (400°F) for 3 minutes.
Remove strings and place the fowl on a hot dish.
Pour gravy around and garnish with curled bacon and water-cress.
Serve with gravy and bread sauce.
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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Veal + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,886 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fowl
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole so its meat stays moist and juicy.
- Veal forcemeat
- Fills the breast cavity, adding moisture and richness as the bird roasts.
- Dripping
- Fat in the tin that bastes the bird, promoting even browning and crisp skin.
- Fat bacon
- Laid over the breast to baste the meat and keep it moist during roasting.
- Flour
- Dusted on the skin before the final heat, helping it brown and crisp.
The step that matters
Basting and the final hot-oven step. Frequent basting spreads fat over the skin and keeps the meat moist. Dredging with flour and a short blast of high heat then browns and crisps the skin. Too little heat or basting leaves the skin pale and dry.
“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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