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Roast Chicken, a LA Tartare

Roast chicken seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, herbs, and lemon, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Roast Chicken, a LA Tartare

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper.

  3. Place butter and fresh herbs inside the cavity of the chicken.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the chicken in the oven for about 1.5 hours, basting occasionally.

  2. Serve with lemon wedges.

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. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Whole chicken
Provides the main protein, which cooks through in the oven to become tender and juicy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the skin brown and the meat stay moist as it roasts.
Fresh herbs
Add aroma to the meat as butter and juices carry their flavour through the bird.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, roasted chicken when served.

The step that matters

Basting occasionally during roasting. Spooning melted butter and pan juices over the chicken keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly while the inside cooks through.

Swap the tarragon

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Tarragonthe original
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, butter, parsley, 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.

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