Name: Broiled Chicken
Ingredients: 1 young chicken; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Butter; Giblets from the chicken; Meat from the neck and wing tips

Why it works: Chicken and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,449 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Broiled Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Choose a young chicken and dress it carefully.
Cut the chicken open on the back and lay it flat.
Remove the first joint of the wings and neck, and set them aside with the giblets.
Prepare a clear fire, not too hot, for broiling.
Broil the chicken, watching carefully to ensure it browns nicely without scorching.
Transfer the chicken to a hot platter and season with salt, pepper, and a generous amount of butter.
Chop the giblets and the meat from the neck and wing tips.
Thicken the chopped giblets and serve them over the chicken or in a gravy tureen.

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.

Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,449 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).