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To Roast Black Cock and Gray Hen

A roasted black cock or gray hen served with gravy and bread sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,445 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

To Roast Black Cock and Gray Hen

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the bird until it shows signs of being ready to roast.

  2. Pick and draw the bird carefully.

  3. Before roasting, sprinkle a little lemon juice over the bird.

Roast and serve

  1. Place it at a moderate distance from a clear, brisk fire.

  2. Baste it plentifully while roasting.

  3. For the last 10 minutes, place it on a thick toast to absorb flavor.

  4. Serve with gravy and bread 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. Lemon + breadtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,445 recipes

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

  2. Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Lemon + saucetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Black cock or gray hen
Is the main meat, cooked whole so its flesh becomes tender and browned over the fire.
Lemon juice
Adds a bright acidity that lightly flavors the bird before it is roasted.

The step that matters

Baste it plentifully while roasting. Frequent basting spoons fat and juices back over the surface, keeping lean game meat moist and helping the skin brown evenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sauce):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pumpkinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sauce. 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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