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A whole bird stuffed with forcemeat, bacon, and aromatics, then braised in veal broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Liver and veal match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 392 recipes. Both carry enoic acid, which smells butter, cheesy. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fill the bird with forcemeat and bacon, or roll it tightly with sausage meat and other ingredients.

  2. Bind the bird with a broad tape and wrap it in a thin pudding cloth, tying both ends securely.

  3. Place the wrapped bird in a braising pan or thick iron saucepan.

Stew and set

  1. Add chicken bones, sweet herbs, carrots, bay leaves, mace, peppercorns, and veal trimmings.

  2. Cover with veal broth and add salt if needed.

  3. Stew gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes.

  4. Let the bird cool in the broth, then boil down the gravy to a 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. Liver + vealtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  2. Chicken + vealtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  3. Carrot + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Chicken + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,338 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Forcemeat
Forms the stuffing that fills the bird and gives it a rich, moist interior.
Bacon
Adds fat that bastes the bird and flavours the stuffing as it cooks.
Chicken bones
Release gelatine into the broth, which sets into the jelly-like gravy.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aroma to the broth as they stew.

The step that matters

Stew gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes.. Gentle heat keeps the broth below a hard boil, so the meat cooks through and stays tender rather than tightening and turning tough or cloudy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, chicken, carrot, veal):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, chicken, carrot, veal. 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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