Why it works: Chicken and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,148 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Roast Fowl
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the chicken
Truss the chicken by leaving the feet on, scalding, and skinning them.
Tuck back the wings and skewer them, catching the top part of the legs. Tie the bottom part of the legs together.
Roast
Roast in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 to 1½ hours, basting well with butter or dripping.
About 15 minutes before finishing, dredge with flour and allow to brown nicely.
Make the gravy
To make gravy, pour off the fat from the roasting tin, sprinkle in the browned flour, and add boiling water.
Stir in the Liebig's extract, salt, and pepper. Allow to boil for three minutes, then strain over the fowl or serve separately.
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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Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,148 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Provides the meat that is cooked and carved, with skin that crisps and browns in the oven.
- Butter or dripping
- Basting fat that carries heat over the surface, helping the skin brown and stay moist.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the pan juices into gravy once it is stirred into the fat and boiling water.
- Liebig's extract of beef
- Adds concentrated beef savour to the gravy.
The step that matters
Dredging with flour near the end of roasting. Flour needs direct dry heat to brown properly; if added too early it can burn or turn pasty, and if added too late it will not colour the skin.
“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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