Why it works: Watercress and butter work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 842 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Snipe, Roasted
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the snipe
Truss the snipe like other birds for roasting, leaving the head skinned and on.
Pass the long beak through the legs and body instead of using a skewer.
Brush the snipe with warm butter and tie a thin slice of bacon over each breast.
Roast and serve
Hang the snipe on a spit, feet downwards, with toast underneath to catch drippings.
Baste frequently with butter and roast for about 15 minutes, or less if you prefer it underdone.
Serve on the toast, garnished with watercress, and pour the gravy into a sauceboat.
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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Watercress + buttertop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together842 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Snipe
- Forms the main meat, which is roasted and basted throughout the cooking.
- Bacon
- Its fat melts over the breast, adding moisture and savoury flavour.
- Butter
- Fat that carries flavour and helps the skin brown while basting.
- Toast
- Catches the drippings beneath the bird and soaks up its juices.
- Good gravy
- Adds a rich, savoury sauce served alongside the roasted bird.
The step that matters
Roasting time and basting. Small, lean birds dry out quickly, so timing matters and frequent basting with butter helps keep the flesh moist and the skin golden.
“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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