Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Fricasseed Chicken, with Green Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Make the stew
Cut the corn from the cob and place it in a pot.
Add enough water to cover the corn and stew until nearly done.
Add the chicken pieces to the pot and stew together for about 30 minutes.
Add the whole peppercorns and the cream or milk.
Thicken and serve
Thicken the mixture with flour stirred into the butter.
Add salt to taste before serving.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Corn + chickentop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,666 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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 and meaty flavor that the stew is built around.
- Green corn
- Adds natural sweetness and body as it stews into the liquid.
- Cream or milk
- Adds richness and a creamy texture to the finished sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid so the sauce becomes smooth and coats the chicken.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor, and helps the flour blend into a smooth thickener.
The step that matters
Thicken the mixture with flour stirred into the butter. Flour must be cooked in fat before or as it meets liquid, or it clumps and leaves a raw starchy taste. Stirring it into melted butter first coats the granules so they disperse evenly and thicken the sauce smoothly.
“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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