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Broiled Squab

A dish of broiled squab served with sautéed onions, roasted eggplant, romaine salad, custard, whipped cream, and toasted bran muffin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Broiled Squab

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the main dishes

  1. Broil the squab until cooked through.

  2. Sauté the onions until golden brown.

  3. Roast or grill the eggplant until tender.

Prepare the accompaniments

  1. Prepare the romaine salad with your choice of dressing.

  2. Serve the custard chilled.

  3. Whip the cream until soft peaks form.

  4. Toast the bran muffin and serve warm.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Onion + eggplanttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together870 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Squab + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Squab
Provides the main protein, which firms and browns as it cooks through under the broiler.
Onions
Caramelize when sautéed, adding sweetness and deep golden color.
Eggplant
Softens as it roasts or grills, giving the dish a tender, moist texture.
Custard
Eggs set into a creamy, smooth texture that is served chilled.
Cream
Whipping traps air in its fat and water, forming soft peaks for lightness and richness.
Bran muffin
Toasting dries the crumb and browns the surface, adding aroma and crispness.

The step that matters

Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Overwhipping past soft peaks makes cream grainy and can turn it to butter, since the fat clumps together and loses its smooth structure.

Swap the eggplant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (squab, onion, cream, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Eggplantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against squab, onion, cream, butter. 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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