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Meats and Poultry

A method for cooking meats and poultry by boiling or roasting, with optional tenderizing and garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Meats and Poultry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. For fresh meat, start cooking in boiling water; for salted meats, use cold water.

  2. Add a piece of red pepper to the water to reduce odor.

  3. Thaw frozen meat in cold water before use.

  4. For tough meat, add a pinch of baking soda or vinegar to the boiling water to tenderize.

Cook

  1. Boil gently for 20 minutes per pound of meat.

  2. Turn the meat frequently for even cooking and remove scum as it forms.

  3. When roasting, baste frequently with the juices and maintain a uniform heat.

Make gravy and serve

  1. To make gravy, mix meat juices with flour and butter browned in a skillet.

  2. Serve garnished with lemon, parsley, beets, carrots, or currant jelly.

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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Is the main component cooked by boiling or roasting until tender.
Baking soda
Raises the water's alkalinity, which helps tenderize tough meat fibers.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps soften tough meat fibers during cooking.
Flour
Thickens the meat juices into a smooth gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and browned flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Keeping the boil gentle and turning the meat. A hard boil toughens meat proteins and can break the pieces apart. Gentle heat cooks them evenly, and turning the meat ensures even cooking while skimming scum keeps the broth clear.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, meat, vinegar, flour, butter, lemon, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Okrafits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, meat, vinegar, flour, butter, lemon, parsley. 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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