Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
To Roast Fowls
Ingredients
Directions
Pick and singe the birds, then draw them.
Place the fowl on its back and make a slit in the neck skin from the body to the head.
Free the neck from the skin and cut it off close to the body, leaving a flap of at least 3 inches long.
Loosen the crop and windpipe, inserting your finger to break the ligaments and loosen the contents.
Be careful not to break the gall-bag, as it will impart a bitter taste.
Turn the bird, enlarge the opening at the other end, and loosen the inside from the carcass.
Press on the breast to push out the gizzard, pulling steadily to remove the interior whole.
Wipe the inside of the bird with a damp cloth.
Truss the bird by pressing down the breastbone and breaking the legs at the first joint.
Wash and dry the liver, open the gizzard, and place them in either wing.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,934 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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