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Roast Chicken with Duchesse Potatoes

Roast chicken served with duchesse potato cakes and croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,756 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓

Roast Chicken with Duchesse Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Prepare and roast the chickens as directed in another recipe.

Make the duchesse potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. Mash the boiled potatoes.

  3. Mix the mashed potatoes with butter, salt, white pepper, nutmeg, and egg yolks.

  4. Form the potato mixture into small cakes, about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide.

  5. Lay the cakes on a buttered baking sheet.

  6. Brush the tops of the cakes with a beaten egg mixed with cold water.

  7. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Fry pieces of bread in hot fat to make croutons.

  2. Arrange the croutons around the chickens when serving.

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. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  2. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

  3. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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

Potatoes
Mashed starch forms the soft, pipeable base that holds the cake's shape.
Egg yolks
Bind the mashed potato and help it set firm during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed potato mixture.
Egg wash
Beaten egg on the tops promotes browning and a glossy golden surface.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. Baking at a moderate heat sets the egg-bound potato and browns the surface; underbaking leaves the cakes pale and soft, while overbaking dries them out.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, potato, sugar, butter, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, potato, sugar, butter, nutmeg, egg. 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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