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Capercailzie, Roasted

A roast of capercaillie, a large European woodland game bird, prepared like a roast chicken with bacon, gravy and bread sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Capercailzie, Roasted

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Prepare and truss the capercailzie like a roast chicken.

  2. Stuff the beefsteak inside the bird.

  3. Cover the breast with bacon slices.

Roast

  1. Roast in a moderate oven for about 1 hour, basting frequently.

  2. Once cooked, remove the bacon, dredge the breast lightly with flour, and baste well for a nice brown appearance.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot dish garnished with washed and dried watercress seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little salad oil.

  2. Serve gravy, bread sauce, and breadcrumbs in sauce-boats.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Watercress + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together983 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Bread + watercresstop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Butter and sauce 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

Capercailzie
The main bird, whose meat is the centre of the dish.
Beefsteak
Stuffed inside the bird to add moisture and savoury flavour as it roasts.
Bacon
Laid over the breast to baste it with fat and protect the lean meat from drying.
Flour (in the method)
Dusted on the breast after the bacon is removed to help it brown.

The step that matters

Basting the breast after the bacon is removed. Once the bacon comes off, the lean breast can dry out and brown unevenly. Dusting with flour and basting well helps form a golden crust while keeping the surface moist.

“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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