Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Roast Fowl
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Fill the breast of the fowl with forcemeat.
Roast and crumb
Roast the fowl as usual until nearly ready.
Remove the fowl from the fire and pour lukewarm butter over it.
Strew the fowl thickly with fine bread crumbs and sprinkle with more butter.
Dip the fowl into additional crumbs.
Return the fowl to the fire until it is a clear, light brown all over.
Serve
Carefully remove from the spit, dish, and serve with lemon sauce and gravy.
Optionally mix shredded herbs, spices, and lemon zest with the crumbs.
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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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,588 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Forcemeat
- Fills the breast, flavouring the meat and keeping the bird moist as it cooks.
- Lukewarm butter
- Adds fat that moistens the surface and helps the crumbs brown evenly.
- Fine bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden-brown crust on the outside of the fowl.
- Lemon sauce
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich, fatty flavour of the roast.
The step that matters
Returning the crumbed fowl to the fire. Crumbs and butter brown quickly through Maillard reactions at high heat, so the fowl can over-browse or dry out if left too long. Watch for a clear, light brown colour and stop there.
“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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