Why it works: Pepper and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
To Broil Fowls and Pigeons
Ingredients
Directions
Clean and prepare the fowls or pigeons as for roasting.
Split them down the back and lay them flat.
Dust with pepper.
Broil slowly, as they are thicker than steaks or chops.
Rub occasionally with butter to prevent the skin from cracking.
Do not remove the skin before broiling.
When serving, sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Serve with various sauces like parsley and butter, melted butter, beef gravy, or mushroom sauce.
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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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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