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To Roast

A roasted bird or pheasant served with gravy or mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

To Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bird

  1. Prepare a smart fire, not too fierce.

  2. Pick and draw the bird.

  3. Cut a slit in the back of the neck.

  4. Remove the craw without cutting off the head.

  5. Wipe the inside of the bird with a clean cloth.

  6. Twist the legs loose from the body.

  7. Leave the feet on.

  8. Cut off the toes.

  9. Truss the bird like a fowl without turning the head under the wing.

Prepare and coat the fillets

  1. For fillets, cut them off.

  2. Beat the fillets lightly with the handle of a knife.

  3. Melt butter in a stewpan.

  4. Dip the fillets in the melted butter.

  5. Flatten and trim the fillets.

  6. Dip the fillets in beaten egg mixed with a little salt.

  7. Coat the fillets with fine bread crumbs.

Roast and fry

  1. Roast a young bird for 30 minutes or a full-grown pheasant for 40-50 minutes.

  2. Fry the fillets in boiling lard until light brown.

  3. Serve with gravy or mushroom 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pheasant + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the salt-seasoned coating so the bread crumbs adhere to the fillets.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the fillets take on the coating evenly.
Lard
Conducts heat in frying, browning the coated fillets and crisping the crumbs.

The step that matters

Frying the fillets in boiling lard until light brown. Lard must be hot enough to crisp the crumb coating quickly; if it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy and soggy instead of golden.

“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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