Skip to main content
Main

Fowls

Braised fowl cooked with bacon, veal, beef, onion, herbs, gravy, finished with a glaze and a ragout of sweetbreads, cocks'-combs, truffles, mushrooms, and forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Mace and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,557 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fowl

  1. Truss the fowl as for boiling.

  2. Season the fowl with beaten mace, nutmeg, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

Braise

  1. Layer bacon at the bottom of a stewpan, followed by veal, then the fowl, an onion with cloves, sweet herbs, and a piece of carrot.

  2. Top with another layer of bacon, veal, and beef.

  3. Cover tightly and let it stand over low heat for 2-3 minutes.

  4. Pour in 1 pint of common gravy.

  5. Let it stew for 1 hour.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove the fowl.

  2. Strain the sauce.

  3. Skim off the fat.

  4. Boil the sauce down until it glazes.

  5. Pour the glaze over the fowl.

  6. Add a ragout of sweetbreads, cocks'-combs, truffles, and mushrooms, along with forcemeat balls.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Mace + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mace + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Onion + beeftop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fowl
The main protein, which becomes tender and flavorful as it braises slowly in its own juices and gravy.
Bacon
Its rendered fat seasons the base layer and adds savory depth to the braising liquid.
Veal
Gelatin-rich meat that breaks down during stewing, adding body and richness to the sauce.
Beef
Adds meaty depth and savory flavor to the braising liquid as it stews.
Common gravy
The braising liquid, which becomes the sauce that is strained, reduced and glazed.
Sweetbreads
Tender offal that adds a delicate, rich texture to the ragout served with the fowl.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce down until it glazes. Reducing concentrates the flavor and gelatin in the strained sauce. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while overreducing can make it salty and sticky.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mace, nutmeg, pepper, veal, clove, carrot, beef):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsnipbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mace, nutmeg, pepper, veal, clove, carrot, beef. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

You might also like

Illustration of Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothIllustrationBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesIllustration of Roast BeefIllustrationRoast Beef211 recipesIllustration of Beef LoafIllustrationBeef Loaf175 recipesIllustration of Carrot SoupIllustrationCarrot Soup134 recipes