Name: Minced Fowl, ^ LA B^chanael
Ingredients: remains of cold roast fowl; 6 tablespoons Bechamel sauce; 6 tablespoons white stock; 1 egg white; bread crumbs; clarified butter

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Minced Fowl, ^ LA B^chanael

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mince

Mince the white meat of the roast fowl very small.
Put it into a saucepan with the Béchamel sauce and stock. Stir well over the heat and let it just boil.

Assemble and brown

Pour the mixture into a dish.
Beat the egg white and spread it over the mince. Sprinkle grated bread crumbs on top. Drizzle a little clarified butter over everything.
Brown under the broiler or with a salamander.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,934 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Béchamel sauce: Binds the minced meat into a moist, creamy mixture that holds together.
Egg white: Beaten and spread on top, it sets with heat to form a light, firm crust.
Bread crumbs: Form a crisp topping that browns when heated.
Clarified butter: Adds fat that helps the topping brown and gives a rich flavor.

The step that matters

Brown under the broiler or with a salamander. The topping needs direct high heat to brown quickly. Heating too long can dry out the minced meat beneath, so watch closely and stop as soon as the surface is 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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White Bread80 recipes

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Minced Fowl, ^ LA B^chanael