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Brown Fricassee of Chicken

A braised chicken cooked with salt pork, onion, and a butter‑flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Brown Fricassee of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the chicken

  1. Joint the chicken and place it in a dripping pan with a layer of chopped salt pork and minced onion.

  2. Add cold water to a depth of two inches, cover with another pan, and cook slowly until tender.

  3. Uncover and increase the heat, turning the chicken often until browned on all sides.

  4. Remove the chicken and arrange it on a hot dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Add boiling water to the gravy, then mix in butter rolled in browned flour, minced parsley, pepper, and salt if needed.

  2. Boil the gravy and pour it over the chicken.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 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

Chicken
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow, covered cooking.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the pan, flavouring the chicken and helping it brown.
Butter rolled in browned flour
Flour thickens the gravy, and butter adds richness and a smooth body.
Minced onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the cooking liquid and gravy.

The step that matters

Cooking the chicken slowly until tender. Cold water and a covered pan let the connective tissue soften gradually. Rushing with high heat toughens the meat before it becomes tender.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

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