Name: Prairie Chicken
Ingredients: Prairie chicken; water; baking soda; butter; tart jelly; parsley

Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Prairie Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Clean and wash the prairie chicken thoroughly in water with a little baking soda.
Rinse in clear water several times and soak in water for at least 30 minutes if possible.
Wipe the chicken dry and fill it with a good dressing.
Tie down the wings and legs with a cord.
Stew the chicken, closely covered, with plenty of butter, or steam it over hot water until tender.
Place the chicken in a pan with a little butter and brown it.
Serve with tart jelly and garnish with parsley.

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.

Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,314 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).