Why it works: Bread and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,145 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
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
Remove the breast from the fowl intact.
Shape the forced meat around the breast and smooth it with a knife.
Insert the slice of ham into the fowl.
Simmer and fill
Place the fowl in a stew pan with the stock, cover, and simmer on low until heated through.
Fill the fowl with the mince, leaving the ham inside.
Bake and serve
Sprinkle bread crumbs over the mince and dot with oiled butter using a brush.
Bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes until browned.
Serve with Besheml sauce on the dish and garnish with paste.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,145 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Ham + breadtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Meat + hamtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
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Meat + breadtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,919 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Ham + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Whole fowl
- Forms the main body of the dish and carries the other ingredients.
- Forced meat
- Adds a tender, moist layer around the breast and fills the cavity.
- Ham
- Adds savoury, salty flavour to the centre of the dish.
- Stock
- Keeps the fowl moist during gentle simmering and adds savoury flavour.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden crust when baked.
- Butter
- Fat that helps the crumbs brown and adds richness.
The step that matters
Simmering on low until heated through. Gentle heat warms the fowl and forced meat evenly without boiling. Vigorous boiling toughens proteins and dries the meat, so the stock should only barely move.
“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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