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Braised Fowl

A braised fowl served with gravy and forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Braised Fowl

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Lard the breast of the fowl with strips of fat bacon.

  2. Lay two rashers of lean bacon at the bottom of a braising pan.

  3. Place the fowl on the bacon, add the vegetables, and pour in the stock.

  4. Cover the breast of the fowl with greased paper and close the lid of the pan.

Braise

  1. Cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven, basting with stock occasionally, for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  2. Remove the fowl and brown it in front of the fire or in the oven for a few minutes.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain the gravy and boil it quickly without the lid until it reduces to a half glaze.

  2. Place the fowl on a dish and pour the gravy over it.

  3. Form the forcemeat into balls.

  4. Bake the forcemeat balls in the oven; arrange around the fowl.

  5. Garnish with Brussels sprouts or green peas if desired.

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.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow, moist braising.
Stock
Braising liquid that keeps the meat moist and, reduced, forms the glaze.
Bacon
Its fat bastes the bird and adds savoury, salty flavour to the meat and gravy.
Forcemeat
A seasoned meat mixture that sets firm when baked, giving a contrasting texture.

The step that matters

Boiling the gravy down to a half glaze. Boiling uncovered concentrates the stock and its gelatin. If it is under-reduced it stays thin; if over-reduced it can turn salty and sticky, so watch it closely.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, clove, turnip, celery):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, clove, turnip, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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