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A method for roasting a joint of meat or poultry, seasoning with salt, butter or dripping, and flouring for a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Roast

  1. Spit the joint and place it far from the fire initially.

  2. Baste constantly.

  3. When two-thirds done, move it closer to the fire to brown.

  4. A few minutes before removing, sprinkle with salt.

  5. Baste with dripping or butter.

Flour and finish

  1. Dredge with flour.

  2. To avoid raw flour taste, dredge the roast with flour early for a savory crust.

  3. If wrapped in buttered paper, do not flour until 15-20 minutes before serving.

  4. Keep the dripping pan clean and draw it back when stirring the fire.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Meat or poultry
The main protein, which browns and develops savory flavor as its surface heats.
Butter or its own dripping
Fat that bastes the surface, adding richness and helping it brown evenly.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that browns into a savory crust and helps seal in juices.

The step that matters

Dredging the roast with flour early. Flour applied early is cooked in the hot fat, which removes its raw, starchy taste and lets the coating brown into a crisp, savory crust. Flour added late stays pasty and raw-tasting.

“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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