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Roast Chicken

A whole chicken roasted with a herb and breadcrumb dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Singe and drain the chicken, then wash it inside and out with borax water.

  2. Truss the chicken and fill it with the dressing.

  3. Roast the chicken until tender, basting frequently.

  4. To make the dressing, mix the bread crumbs with butter, salt, white pepper, parsley, thyme, sage, nutmeg, and moisten with hot water.

  5. Fill the chicken with the dressing before roasting.

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  4. Sage + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together642 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender as it roasts.
Bread crumbs
Form the body of the dressing and soak up the hot water and butter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing and helps it brown in the oven.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, bread, butter, parsley, thyme, sage, nutmeg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, bread, butter, parsley, thyme, sage, nutmeg. 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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