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Roast Chicken

A whole chicken roasted with bacon, butter, and seasonings, served with brown gravy and bread sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Summer savory and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Roast Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Dress, clean, and stuff the chicken.

  2. Truss the chicken by tucking the tips of the wings under its back and pressing the legs against the body. Secure with a skewer and tie a cord around the skewer and across the back.

  3. Place the chicken on its back on a rack in a roasting pan.

  4. Cover the breast with strips of bacon or a paste made from 3 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour.

Roast and serve

  1. Start roasting in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C), then reduce the heat.

  2. Baste every 10 minutes with the fat in the pan or with 2 tablespoons of dripping mixed with 1 cup of boiling water.

  3. Turn the chicken during cooking to ensure even browning.

  4. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes per pound, plus an additional 20 minutes.

  5. Serve with Brown Gravy and Bread Sauce.

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. Summer savory + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Flour + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together263 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Summer savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the breast brown and stay moist under the paste.
Flour
Thickens the butter paste so it clings to the breast and shields it from drying.
Bacon
Its fat bastes the breast and it adds savory flavor as it cooks.
Dripping
Adds fat and flavor to the basting liquid, encouraging even browning on the skin.

The step that matters

Basting and turning during roasting. Regular basting and turning keep the meat moist and promote even browning, since the breast cooks faster and can dry out while the legs need more heat.

Swap the summer savory

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, flour, bread, sauce, pepper, parsley):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, bread, sauce, pepper, parsley. 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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