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Larks, Roasted

Roasted larks served on toast with bacon, breadcrumbs, lemon, watercress, salad oil, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Watercress and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 579 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Larks, Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick and singe the larks, cut off the feet, and remove the gizzards.

  2. Truss the larks with a skewer, ensuring the skewer can hold six birds.

  3. Brush the larks with hot butter or fat and cover each breast with a slice of bacon.

Roast

  1. Roast the larks before a hot fire for about 10 minutes, basting constantly.

Serve

  1. Place each lark on a piece of toast and arrange them in a circle on a hot dish.

  2. Fill the center with fried breadcrumbs and garnish with cut lemon and watercress seasoned with salad oil, salt, and pepper.

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. Watercress + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together579 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Larks
Small birds whose lean meat is the main dish, cooked quickly over high heat.
Bacon
Thin fat layer that bastes the breast and keeps it moist while roasting.
Buttered toast
Absorbs juices and fat from the birds, adding a soft base under each one.
Fried breadcrumbs
Adds a crisp, golden texture to the centre of the dish.

The step that matters

Roasting the larks. Larks are very small and lean, so a short, hot roast with constant basting is needed. Too much time cooks the meat dry and tough, while basting keeps the surface moist and helps it brown.

“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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