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Squab on Toast

Squab on Toast is a dish of broiled squabs served on toast with butter, parsley garnish, and a flour‑water dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Squab on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and broil

  1. Clean, wash, and dry the squabs thoroughly.

  2. Split the squabs down the back and broil them like young chicken.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Place a good-sized piece of butter on each squab as you place them on the toast.

Make the dressing and serve

  1. If broiling in a pan, make a dressing with the butter and juices from the squabs.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of flour and thin with water, season, and pour around the toast.

  3. Garnish with parsley and serve very hot.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Squab + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

Squabs
Provide the main meat, which cooks through under heat and becomes tender when split and broiled.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, melting over the birds and into the juices for the dressing.
Toast
Gives a crisp base that soaks up the juices and butter from the squabs.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices and butter into a smooth dressing.

The step that matters

Dry the squabs thoroughly. Patting the birds dry before seasoning and broiling helps the skin brown rather than steam, and keeps seasoning adhering to the surface.

“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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