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Roasted Chicken

Roasted chicken prepared with optional stuffing, salt, pepper, butter, flour, and salt pork, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Roasted 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 the chicken

  1. Wipe, singe, and draw the chicken.

  2. Stuff the chicken with stuffing, placing some in the neck and the rest in the body.

  3. Sew up the neck opening.

  4. Smooth the neck skin down and under the back.

  5. Press the wings against the body and fold the pinions under, crossing them at the back.

  6. Press the legs close to the body and tuck them under the skin.

  7. Use a double thread to truss the chicken securely.

  8. Dredge the chicken with salt and pepper.

Roast and finish

  1. Place the chicken on slices of salt pork in a baking pan and add a little water.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes per pound, basting frequently.

  3. Fifteen minutes before it's done, rub the chicken with butter, dredge with flour, and return to the oven until golden brown.

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. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Browns the skin and adds richness to the crisp outer layer.
Flour
Dusted over the buttered skin to help it form a golden, crisp crust.
Salt pork
Lays under the bird, releasing fat that flavours and moistens the roasting pan.

The step that matters

Returning the chicken to the oven after the butter and flour. Butter and flour brown quickly at high heat, so the chicken must be watched closely in the final fifteen minutes. Too long and the coating burns before the skin is golden.

“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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