Why it works: Butter and pepper 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
Prepare
Clean and prepare the fowl or pigeon as for roasting.
Split it down the back and lay it flat.
Dust with pepper.
Do not remove the skin before broiling.
Broil and serve
Broil slowly, as fowls and pigeons require more thorough cooking than steaks or chops.
Rub occasionally with butter to prevent the skin from cracking.
When serving, sprinkle with salt.
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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Butter + peppertop 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
What each ingredient does
- Fowl or pigeon
- Forms the main body of the dish, and its thick flesh needs slow, thorough cooking.
- Butter
- Adds moisture and fat to the skin, helping prevent it from cracking during broiling.
The step that matters
Broil slowly. Fowl and pigeon are thicker and denser than steaks or chops, so they need slow heat to cook through without the outside burning before the centre is done.
“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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