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Spring Chicken, Broiled

A whole chicken broiled and served on buttered toast with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Spring Chicken, Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pluck, singe, and wipe the chicken with a wet towel.

  2. Split the chicken down the back and dress it without breaking the entrails.

  3. Break the joints of the wings and legs.

Broil

  1. Place the chicken between the bars of a buttered double gridiron.

  2. Broil the chicken until brown, ensuring the inside is cooked thoroughly before turning the skin to the fire.

  3. Check that the joints are fully cooked.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Lay the chicken on buttered toast, add 2 tablespoons of butter on top, and serve hot.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  3. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole chicken
Provides the meat that is cooked through and browned over the fire.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the chicken and the buttered toast.
Toast
Soaks up the juices and butter, giving the chicken a base to serve on.

The step that matters

Broil the chicken until brown, ensuring the inside is cooked thoroughly before turning the skin to the fire. Browning the skin before the thick joints and inner meat are cooked leaves the inside underdone or the skin burnt. Cooking the inside first, with the skin turned to the fire only afterward, lets the heat penetrate evenly so the meat is safe and the skin still crisps.

“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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