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Broiled Squirrel

Broiled Squirrel is a dish of squirrel meat roasted with salt, pepper, butter, served with currant jam or grape jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,856 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Broiled Squirrel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin the squirrels and soak them in salt water to remove the blood.

  2. Remove the head and feet.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the squirrels whole.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and butter.

  3. Serve with currant jam or grape jelly.

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. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  2. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + curranttop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Squirrels
Forms the main protein of the dish, so it sets the texture and flavor of the meal.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the seasoned meat stay moist and flavorful.
Currant jam or grape jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity that contrasts with the savory meat.

The step that matters

Broil the squirrels whole. Broiling uses intense direct heat from above, so the meat can dry out or scorch before it cooks through. Watching the surface and turning the squirrels helps them brown evenly while staying moist inside.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, 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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