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Broiled Bird in Paper Case

A whole chicken is cleaned, wrapped in parchment paper, broiled, and served on toast with lemon and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 ↓

Broiled Bird in Paper Case

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bird

  1. Singe and wipe the bird.

  2. Cut through the backbone from the back of the neck to the tail with a sharp knife or scissors.

  3. Lay the bird open and remove the insides.

  4. Cut off the tail, remove the ribs, and take out the breastbone.

  5. Cut through the tendons at the joints.

  6. For spring chickens, remove the legs.

Cook in parchment

  1. Butter a sheet of parchment paper.

  2. Place the bird on the lower half, fold the upper half over, and seal the edges.

  3. Fold the lower side and ends of the paper three times and secure with toothpicks.

  4. Broil in a broiler for 10 minutes over low heat, ensuring the paper does not catch fire, or pan-broil.

Serve

  1. Remove from the paper and place on a slice of toast.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and butter.

  3. Garnish with thin slices of lemon and parsley.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main protein that cooks through in the parchment packet.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the seasoning carry flavor across the bird.
Toast
Soaks up juices from the bird and gives a base to serve it on.

The step that matters

Keeping the parchment from catching fire under the broiler. Parchment scorches and can ignite at high heat. Keeping the heat low, as the method directs, and sealing the packet tightly lets steam cook the bird while the paper stays intact.

“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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