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 ↓
Roast Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Wash the chicken well in two or three waters.
Add a little baking soda to the last rinse.
Dry the chicken with a clean cloth.
Fill the cavity with stuffing.
Place the chicken in a roasting pan.
Add hot water and butter to the pan.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
Roast
Baste the chicken frequently while roasting at 400°F (200°C).
When nearly done, add a piece of butter the size of a large egg to the pan.
Baste the chicken again.
Dredge a little flour over the chicken.
Continue roasting for about 30 minutes, ensuring it does not scorch.
Make the gravy and serve
Simmer the giblets in a small amount of water.
Strain the giblets.
Mix the strained giblets with the drippings from the chicken.
Thicken the gravy with browned flour.
Add chopped giblets to the gravy.
Serve the chicken with the gravy and cranberry sauce or any tart sauce.
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.
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
-
Chicken + livertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together383 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 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
- Chicken
- Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that cooks through during roasting.
- Butter
- Adds fat that enriches the drippings and helps the skin brown and stay moist.
- Flour
- Browns in the drippings and thickens the pan juices into a gravy.
- Giblets
- Simmered and chopped into the gravy, adding depth of flavour to the drippings.
The step that matters
Continue roasting without letting it scorch. Flour dredged over the chicken and sugars in the drippings can burn before the bird is cooked through. Basting and watching the heat helps the surface brown evenly while the interior reaches a safe temperature.
“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.
More roast chicken recipes
You might also like
Chicken Broth257 recipes
Chicken Soup156 recipes
Creamed Chicken89 recipes
Chicken Panada75 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.