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Fowl, Roast

A roasted fowl dish coated with bechamel sauce, egg white, breadcrumbs, and clarified butter, then browned under a broiler.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Fowl, Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely chop the remains of roast fowl.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the chopped fowl, Bechamel sauce, and white stock; stir over heat until it just boils.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a dish.

Top and brown

  1. Beat the egg white and spread it over the fowl mixture.

  2. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and drizzle with a little clarified butter.

  3. Brown under a broiler or in front of a fire for 2-3 minutes.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

What each ingredient does

Bechamel sauce
Provides a creamy, rich base that keeps the fowl moist and binds the mixture.
White stock
Adds liquid to loosen the sauce and carry flavor through the chopped fowl.
Egg white
Forms a thin layer that sets under heat, helping the topping hold together and brown.
Bread crumbs
Create a crisp, golden crust when browned.
Clarified butter
Adds fat that promotes even browning and a rich flavor on the crumbs.

The step that matters

Brown under the broiler or fire. Browning is quick and depends on heat close to the surface. Too little heat leaves the topping pale and soft, while too long can scorch the crumbs before the egg white sets.

“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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