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Roast Larks

Roast larks are larks coated in parsley, pepper, salt, nutmeg, beaten egg yolks, bread crumbs, clarified butter, then roasted on a spit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Roast Larks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the heads and legs of the larks. Take out the gizzards.

  2. Season the larks with parsley, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  3. Rub the larks with beaten egg yolks.

  4. Coat the larks in bread crumbs.

  5. Drizzle the larks with clarified butter.

  6. Roll the larks in bread crumbs again.

  7. Skewer the larks on a spit.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the larks over a brisk fire for about 15 minutes, basting with melted butter.

  2. Arrange the larks on a serving dish.

  3. Fill the center of the dish with fried bread crumbs.

  4. Serve the larks with the recommended sauce.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Larks
Provide the main meat, which is cooked whole on the spit.
Egg yolks
Bind the bread crumb coating so it adheres to the birds.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust around the larks as they roast.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and helps the coating brown evenly in the heat.

The step that matters

Roast over a brisk fire. A brisk fire sets the bread crumb crust quickly and browns it before the small birds dry out. Basting with melted butter keeps the surface moist and helps it color evenly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, pepper, egg, bread, butter):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, pepper, egg, bread, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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