Why it works: Chicken and watercress work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 248 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
Roast Chickens
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Truss the chickens for roasting and place them in a roasting pan.
Melt the dripping and pour it over the chickens.
Cover the chickens with a well‑greased paper.
Roast
Roast in a 350°F (175°C) oven, basting frequently.
Roast large chickens for 1 hour and small ones for about 45 minutes.
Once cooked and browned, remove the strings.
Serve
Arrange the chickens on a hot dish with their feet towards each other.
Wash and pick over the watercress, then place it between the chickens.
Cook the bacon slices, roll them, and arrange them around the chickens.
Pour a little gravy around the chickens and serve the rest in a gravy boat.
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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Chicken + watercresstop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together248 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chickens
- Provide the main meat, which cooks through and browns during roasting.
- Good dripping
- Adds fat that helps the skin brown and keeps the meat moist as it roasts.
- Bacon
- Adds savoury fat and flavour as it cooks around the birds.
The step that matters
Roast large chickens for 1 hour and small ones for about 45 minutes.. Cooking time depends on bird size. Undercooked poultry is unsafe, and overcooking dries out the meat, so check doneness at the end.
“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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