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Broiled Squab

A grilled squab seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Squab and butter work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 48 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Broiled Squab

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat your grill over clear coals.

  2. Cut the squabs down the back, clean them, wash, and dry them with a clean napkin.

  3. Grease the grill bars to prevent sticking.

Grill and serve

  1. Place the squabs on the grill and turn them frequently to avoid burning the legs and wings.

  2. Once cooked, place them on a dish, season with salt and pepper, and baste with melted butter on both sides.

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. Squab + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  3. Squab + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

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

What each ingredient does

Young pigeons or squabs
Provide the tender meat that is the main component of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture when basted over the cooked birds.

The step that matters

Turning the squabs frequently on the grill. Frequent turning spreads the heat so the thin legs and wings do not scorch before the meat is cooked through.

“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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