Name: Roast Chicken
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, cleaned and drawn; ½ teaspoon baking soda; 1 cup hot water; 2 tablespoons butter, divided; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon black pepper; flour for dredging; giblets (necks, gizzards, livers, hearts) from the chicken

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

1 whole chicken, cleaned and drawn
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup hot water
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
flour for dredging
giblets (necks, gizzards, livers, hearts) from the chicken

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 thoroughly in two or three waters.
Add baking soda to the second wash to ensure freshness.
Dry the chicken with a clean cloth and fill the cavity with stuffing.

Roast

Place the chicken in a roasting pan with hot water and 1 tablespoon of butter.
Season with salt and pepper.
Baste frequently while roasting.
Roast at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes, basting with melted butter.
Add another tablespoon of butter to the pan.
Dredge the chicken with flour.

Make the gravy

Simmer the giblets in a little water.
Strain the giblets.
Mix the 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.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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).
Chicken + livertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together383 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Whole chicken: Provides the main protein and body of the dish, cooked through by dry roasting.
Butter: Adds fat that carries flavour and promotes browning on the skin while roasting.
Flour: Dredged on the chicken and browned to thicken the gravy.
Baking soda: Raises the pH of the wash water, which can help the skin brown and crisp.
Giblets: Simmered and chopped into the gravy, adding savory depth of flavour.

The step that matters

Roast at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes, basting with melted butter. Basting keeps the skin moist and spreads fat over it, which promotes even browning. Browning the flour properly matters too, because undercooked flour leaves the gravy tasting raw.

“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.