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Fowl, Roast

Roast fowl served with bacon, gravy, bread sauce, and dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,934 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fowl, Roast

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Immerse the tin containing the fowl in boiling water until thoroughly hot.

  2. Open the tin and carefully remove the bird.

  3. Cover the breast with rashers of bacon.

Roast and serve

  1. Baste well with hot dripping.

  2. Cook in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

  3. Serve the bread sauce and gravy separately.

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 + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Provides the main cooked meat, which firms and becomes tender as the oven heat sets its proteins.
Bacon
Its fat bastes the breast as it renders, adding moisture, savoury flavour and some browning.
Dripping
Hot fat carries heat to the skin, promoting browning and crispness and adding rich flavour.

The step that matters

Basting with hot dripping. Basting with hot fat, not cold, keeps the skin's temperature up so it browns and crisps rather than steaming. Spreading the fat over the whole bird also helps it cook evenly and stay 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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