Skip to main content
Main

Poultry, Ragout of

A savory ragout made with poultry, bones, aromatics, and a butter‑flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Poultry, Ragout of

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the poultry

  1. Partially roast the poultry until half cooked.

  2. If desired, divide it into joints or leave it whole.

  3. Place the poultry in a stewpan with bones, trimmings, onion, cloves, lemon rind, allspice, pepper, and enough stock or water to cover.

  4. Simmer gently until the poultry is fully cooked.

  5. Remove the poultry.

  6. Keep the poultry warm.

Make the gravy

  1. Strain the cooking liquid.

  2. Skim off the fat from the liquid.

  3. Melt the butter in a separate stewpan.

  4. Mix in enough flour to form a paste.

  5. Gradually add the hot cooking liquid, lemon juice, and port or claret.

  6. Bring to a boil for 1-2 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the poultry on a dish.

  2. Pour the hot gravy over it.

  3. Garnish with toasted sippets.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Poultry
Provides the main meat, which is partly roasted and then simmered until fully cooked.
Butter
Melts with the flour to form a roux that thickens the gravy and adds richness.
Flour
Forms a paste with the melted butter that thickens the cooking liquid into gravy.
Port or claret
Adds acidity and fruity depth to the gravy as it reduces during boiling.

The step that matters

Adding the hot liquid to the flour paste. Adding the liquid gradually while stirring keeps the flour from forming lumps, so the gravy stays smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, lemon, allspice, pepper, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, lemon, allspice, pepper, butter, flour. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes