Name: Broiled Chicken
Ingredients: 1 tender chicken; 2 slices of bread; salt to taste; ¼ teaspoon butter (optional)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Broiled Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

1 tender chicken
2 slices of bread
salt to taste
¼ teaspoon butter (optional)

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 the chicken

Pluck and singe the chicken, then split it down the back and draw it carefully.
Wipe the chicken with a damp cloth, but do not wash it.
Break the joints and breast-bone with a rolling pin, covering the chicken with a towel to protect the flesh.

Cook and serve

Broil the chicken inside first over a clear, brisk fire.
Place it in a pan on the bread and roast in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).
Remove excess fat from the gravy that flows from the chicken.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
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 body of the dish, cooked by broiling and roasting until done.
Bread: Sits under the chicken in the pan, soaking up juices and fat as it roasts.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the surface brown, though it is optional in this recipe.

“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.