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 ↓
How to Bone a Chicken or Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fowl
Use a sharp knife to slit the skin of the fowl down the back from neck to oil-bag.
Cut and scrape off all the meat and skin close to the bones.
Joint the thigh, leg, and wing bones, cutting off the last joint of the wing carefully.
Remove the skeleton and entrails, saving all giblets.
Fill and bake
Make a filling by mixing bread crumbs, minced giblets, and dark meat.
Fill the cavity where the bones were removed and sew the skin down the back.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until done, basting with salt, water, and butter.
Remove threads when hot, handle carefully, and serve hot or cold.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,449 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,258 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
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Bread + meattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb juices and add body to the filling inside the cavity.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the skin brown during baking.
- Giblets
- Add savory, meaty flavor to the filling.
- Dark meat
- Adds flavor and moisture to the filling, since it holds more fat than breast meat.
The step that matters
Basting during baking. Basting with salt, water, and butter keeps the exposed meat moist and helps the skin brown. Without it, the boned, stuffed bird can dry out before it is cooked through.
“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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