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Capercailzie, Roasted

Roasted capercaillie stuffed with beefsteak and bacon, served with gravy, bread sauce, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Capercailzie, Roasted

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and truss

  1. Prepare the capercaillie.

  2. Truss the capercaillie like a roast chicken.

  3. Stuff the bird with beefsteak for added flavor.

  4. Cover the breast with bacon slices.

Roast

  1. Roast in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour, basting frequently.

  2. Remove the bacon.

  3. Dredge the bird lightly with flour.

  4. Baste the bird to achieve a nice brown color.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot dish garnished with well-washed, dried, and seasoned watercress.

  2. Serve gravy, bread sauce, and breadcrumbs in sauceboats.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Watercress + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together983 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Bread + watercresstop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Capercaillie (in the method)
Is the main meat, cooked whole and trussed to hold its shape while roasting.
Beefsteak
Stuffed inside the bird, where it adds savoury flavour to the meat as it roasts.
Bacon
Covers the breast, basting it with fat and keeping the lean meat moist in the oven.
Flour (in the method)
Dusted lightly over the bird, it helps the skin brown and crisp during roasting.

The step that matters

Basting the bird through the roast. Game birds are very lean, so they dry out easily. Frequent basting with fat keeps the meat moist and helps the surface brown evenly.

“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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