Skip to main content

Bastion a L'ameeioaine

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 13,015 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

  1. Bone the chickens thoroughly and trim the meats evenly.

  2. In a bowl, mix the forcemeat with the chopped ham, truffle peelings, Madeira wine, and brandy.

  3. Season the boned chickens with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Fill each chicken with an 8-ounce layer of forcemeat.

  5. Add 2 ounces of sliced truffles, pistachio nuts, and red beef tongue squares.

  6. Spread another 8-ounce layer of forcemeat on top and repeat the filling process.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pepper + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Ham + truffletop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together516 recipes

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

  3. Truffle + madeira winetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together195 recipes
  4. Nutmeg + pistachiotop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  5. Chicken + truffletop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together756 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the pistachio

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, ham, truffle, madeira wine, brandy, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Peasbetter flavor fit
  2. Walnutbetter flavor fit
  3. Chestnutbetter flavor fit
  4. Pistachiothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, truffle, madeira wine, brandy, pepper, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

You might also like

Illustration of Delicate CakeIllustrationDelicate Cake246 recipesIllustration of Boiled FrostingIllustrationBoiled Frosting69 recipesIllustration of Citron CakeIllustrationCitron Cake68 recipesIllustration of Scotch CakeIllustrationScotch Cake63 recipes