Why it works: Summer savory and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 263 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roast Fowl
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
Prepare the fowl by drawing and cleaning it.
Fill the body with a mixture of bread crumbs, butter, pepper, salt, and summer savory.
Sew up the opening and truss the fowl.
Roast
Oil the fowl with butter and roast it for 30 minutes, turning to heat all sides evenly. Baste the fowl every five minutes.
After 30 minutes, reduce heat to 300°F (150°C) and roast for an additional 45 minutes or until fully cooked.
If not browned sufficiently, brush with egg yolk, sprinkle with flour, and roast a little longer until evenly browned.
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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Summer savory + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together263 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together671 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Fowl
- Forms the main body of the dish and carries the stuffing while it roasts.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the butter and juices in the stuffing, keeping it moist and soft as it heats.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the skin brown as it roasts.
- Egg yolk
- Brushed on the surface to promote even browning and a glossy finish.
The step that matters
Turning and basting the fowl. Turning heats all sides evenly, and regular basting with the butter and juices keeps the skin from drying out, helping it brown rather than stay pale or dry.
Swap the summer savory
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, pepper, egg, flour):
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Summer savorythe original
- Capersfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, pepper, egg, flour. 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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