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Bkoiled Spring Chicken

A whole spring chicken roasted over a hot fire, seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, and pounded crackers, served with broiled tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bkoiled Spring Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the chicken and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  2. Rub the chicken all over with butter.

  3. Pinion the legs to the side.

Grill and serve

  1. Place the chicken on a grill over a hot fire, inside down.

  2. Turn the chicken often until it is nicely browned.

  3. Pour melted butter over the chicken and sprinkle with pounded crackers.

  4. Serve with broiled tomatoes.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the skin brown and crisp on the grill.
Pounded crackers
Sprinkled on top to add a crisp, browned crumb coating.
Spring chicken
Main protein; splitting it flat lets it cook evenly over the fire.

The step that matters

Turning the chicken often over the hot fire. Frequent turning over high heat lets the surface brown without scorching before the inside is cooked through. Too little turning, or heat that is too fierce and left unattended, can char the outside while the meat stays underdone.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Onionfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, butter. 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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