Skip to main content
Main

To Broil Chickens, Pigeons, &C.

A method for broiling chickens and pigeons, seasoned with salt and pepper, garnished with parsley and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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 ↓

To Broil Chickens, Pigeons, &C.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Slit the chickens down the back and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Place them on a clear fire, with the inside facing the fire to avoid scorching.

  3. When half done, turn them often and baste well.

  4. Garnish with shredded parsley and lemon before serving.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Form the main body of the dish, cooked through by the fire's heat.
Salt
Seasons the chicken and enhances its savory flavor.

The step that matters

Placing the inside toward the fire. Facing the cut inside toward the heat helps the meat cook through, while turning and basting during cooking keeps the surface from drying out or scorching.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Rosemaryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, lemon. 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.

More broiled chicken recipes

with Gravy 7with Mushroom Sauce 6on Toast 5Breast 3Neck 3or Quail 3 See all 165 →

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes