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Boasted Squabs

Roasted squabs seasoned with salt and butter, served with watercress garnish and a white broth sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Squab and butter work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 48 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Boasted Squabs

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 the squabs

  1. Singe the squabs.

  2. Draw the squabs.

  3. Cut off the necks of the squabs.

  4. Wipe the squabs clean.

  5. Truss the squabs.

  6. Place the squabs in a roasting pan.

  7. Sprinkle the salt evenly over the squabs.

  8. Spread the butter on top.

Roast

  1. Roast the squabs in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 12 minutes.

  2. Remove the squabs from the oven.

  3. Untruss the squabs.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Skim the fat from the gravy.

  2. Add the white broth to the gravy.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Strain the sauce into a sauce bowl.

  5. Place the squabs on a hot dish with canapes.

  6. Garnish the squabs with fresh watercress.

  7. Serve the sauce with the squabs.

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. Squab + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + watercresstop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together842 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Squab + watercresstop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2 recipes

    Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).

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

What each ingredient does

Squabs
Provide the meat, which cooks through in a hot oven and becomes the main dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the surface brown and the meat stay moist.
White broth
Adds liquid to the gravy, loosening and thinning it into a sauce.

The step that matters

Roast the squabs in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 12 minutes.. Small birds cook quickly, so overcooking dries the meat. Removing them at the right point keeps the flesh juicy and tender.

“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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