Name: To Roast
Ingredients: 1 bird (chicken or similar); ½ cup bread crumbs; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons sweet cream or melted butter; 1 small slice of salt pork; butter for basting; water for basting; slices of buttered toast

Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

To Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Clean and draw the bird.
Stuff the bird with seasoned bread crumbs moistened with cream or melted butter.
Sew the bird up and tie a slice of salt pork around it.

Roast and serve

Place the bird in a roasting pan and baste with butter and water.
Put slices of buttered toast under the bird before serving.

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.

Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,417 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + porktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,371 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,933 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

Bird: Provides the main protein that is roasted and served as the centerpiece of the dish.
Bread crumbs: Absorb the cream or butter and fill the cavity, adding moisture and body to the stuffing.
Sweet cream or melted butter: Moistens the bread crumbs and adds richness and fat to the stuffing.
Salt pork: Lays fat over the bird as it roasts, adding moisture and savory flavor.

“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.