Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
To Souse a Fowl
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the fowl into joints.
Sprinkle pepper and salt over the fowl.
Add the small cut onions.
Pour boiling water over the fowl.
Cover with another dish and let it stand until cold.
For a cold fowl, heat in a saucepan for a few minutes.
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.
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fowl
- The main ingredient, providing the meat that is steeped and served in the dish.
- Boiling water
- Heats the fowl and carries moisture and seasoning into the meat as it stands.
- Onions
- Add aromatic flavour that mellows and softens as the fowl stands in the liquid.
The step that matters
Cover with another dish and let it stand until cold. Covering traps heat and steam around the fowl, so it cools slowly in its liquid. This keeps the meat moist and lets the seasoning and onion flavour soak in 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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