Name: Chicken Loaf
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, boned; chopped sweetbread, well seasoned; bacon, for wrapping; white wine; good stock; sweet herbs; rich sauce, for serving

Why it works: Chicken and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,904 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Chicken Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Carefully bone the chicken and fill it with seasoned chopped sweetbread.
Shape the chicken back into its original form and tie it up with bacon.
Wrap the chicken in a cloth and boil it in white wine, good stock, and sweet herbs.
Once cooked, untie the chicken and use the bacon as a garnish, cut into narrow strips.
Serve with a rich 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.

Chicken + white winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,904 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
White wine + saucetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together819 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,513 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).