Skip to main content
Main

Spring Chicken

A whole chicken roasted with butter, lard, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓

Spring Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Split the chicken down the back and through the breast.

  2. Wash the chicken well and let it drain thoroughly.

  3. Dip the chicken in flour on both sides.

Cook

  1. Heat a mixture of butter and lard in a skillet and place the chicken skin-side down.

  2. Dredge the chicken liberally with salt and pepper.

  3. Cook in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes, then baste well.

  4. When the top side is brown, turn the chicken pieces to brown the other side.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter 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

Chicken
Provides the main protein; splitting it lets the pieces cook evenly and brown on both sides.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the skin brown and crisp in the fat.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and browns to a nutty aroma in the skillet.
Lard
Carries heat well and helps the skin brown and crisp without burning as quickly as butter alone.

The step that matters

Turning the chicken once the top is brown. Turning too early tears the crust that has formed, and turning too late can leave the underside pale or the skin overcooked; a steady browned surface on each side gives even colour and crispness.

“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.

More spring chicken recipes

Fried 14Broiled 12Baked 8Stewed Whole 5Roasted 3 See all 10 →

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipesChicken PanadaChicken Panada75 recipes