Why it works: Flour and watercress match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 340 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fowl, Roasted
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick and singe the fowl, then truss it firmly.
Season the fowl with coarse sea salt.
Dredge the fowl with fine, dry flour at least 10 minutes before roasting.
Roast and serve
Roast the fowl over an open fire, basting frequently, for 50 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on size.
Serve garnished with watercress, sausages, or forcemeat balls, along with bread sauce and gravy.
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.
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Flour + watercresstop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together340 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Watercress + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together307 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Watercress + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together295 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,934 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Whole fowl
- Provides the main body of meat that cooks through over the fire.
- Fine, dry flour
- Coats the skin so it browns and crisps during roasting.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the skin and meat directly before roasting.
The step that matters
Dredging with flour before roasting. The flour must be dry and applied at least 10 minutes before roasting so it can settle and bind to the skin. Damp flour would turn pasty instead of crisping and browning 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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