Name: Roasted Boned Chicken
Ingredients: 1 boned chicken; Forcemeat (stuffing); Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Slices of salt pork; Flour (for dredging); Giblet or tomato sauce (for serving)

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 Boned Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the chicken

Spread the boned chicken skin side down on a board.
Turn the flesh of the legs and wings right side out.
Stuff them with forcemeat.
Equalize the meat.
Place mignon fillets over the dark meat.
Season with salt and pepper.
Make a roll of the stuffing and lay it inside the chicken.
Draw the skin up and sew it securely.
Turn the chicken over.
Position the legs and wings like a trussed fowl and tie it securely.

Roast and serve

Cover the chicken with slices of salt pork.
Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes per pound, basting frequently.
Remove the pork during the last 15 minutes.
Dredge the chicken with flour and let it brown.
Serve with giblet or tomato sauce.

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.

Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,417 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,031 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Boned chicken: Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through as the protein that is eaten.
Forcemeat: Fills the cavity and legs, adding moisture and flavour to the lean meat as it cooks.
Salt pork: Covers the bird, basting it with rendered fat and keeping the surface moist as it roasts.
Flour: Dredged over the chicken, it helps the skin brown and crisp in the oven.

The step that matters

Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes per pound, basting frequently.. Because the bird is boned and stuffed, its dense interior cooks slowly while the outside can dry or over-brown. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist and the fat distributed, and the timing should be judged by the stuffed weight so the centre reaches a safe temperature.