Why it works: Sage and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Roast Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean the chickens and stuff the breast and body with the dressing made from stale bread, salt, pepper, parsley, sage, summer savory, and butter.
Truss the chickens.
Dredge the chickens with salt.
Rub soft butter thickly over the chickens.
Dredge the chickens with flour.
Roast
Place the chickens on a meat rack in a hot oven for a few moments to brown the flour in the pan.
Add enough water to cover the pan.
Baste every 15 minutes with the pan gravy.
Wait until one side is browned.
Turn the chickens to brown the other side.
Bake the chickens on their backs for the last position to brown the breast.
Baste the breast with soft butter.
Dredge the breast with flour before serving.
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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Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together237 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + summer savorytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together241 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,445 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,388 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chickens
- Form the main body of the dish, cooked whole and basted to stay moist while roasting.
- Stale bread
- Forms the bulk of the dressing that holds the stuffing together and absorbs the juices.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, carries flavour, and helps the skin brown evenly.
- Flour (in the method)
- Coats the skin so it browns and crisps in the pan and thickens the pan gravy.
The step that matters
Turning and browning the chickens. Turning the chickens lets each side brown evenly in the fat and pan juices. Waiting until one side is well browned before turning helps the skin set so it does not tear or stick, and the flour coating needs time to colour properly.
Swap the summer savory
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, bread, pepper, parsley, sage, butter):
- Thymefits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Summer savorythe original
- Rosemaryfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, bread, pepper, parsley, sage, butter. 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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