Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓
Steamed Chicken, Stuffed
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Clean and dress the chicken as for roasting.
Make stuffing with crumbs, pepper, salt, and butter, then mix in oysters cut into three pieces.
Bind the legs and wings to the body with tape.
Steam
Place in a steamer with a lid or in a tin pail in cold water.
Heat gradually to a boil and cook for 2 hours after boiling begins.
Check tenderness of the breast with a fork after 2 hours.
Remove the chicken to a hot-water dish and keep covered.
Make the gravy and serve
Strain the gravy from the steamer or pail into a saucepan.
Stir in butter, oyster liquor, flour mixed with cream, and parsley.
Bring to a boil, quickly stir in the beaten egg, and season to taste.
Pour some gravy over the chicken and serve the rest in a boat.
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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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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 meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle steaming.
- Oysters
- Add a briny, savory flavor to the stuffing and the gravy.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the stuffing and the gravy.
- Flour
- Thickens the cream and gravy so it becomes smooth and coating.
- Egg
- Enriches the gravy and thickens it slightly when stirred in while hot.
- Cream
- Adds richness and body to the gravy.
The step that matters
Stirring in the beaten egg. Egg proteins set when heated, so the gravy can curdle or turn grainy if it boils hard or the egg goes in too slowly. Adding it quickly off the heat's peak keeps it smooth.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, butter, oyster, pepper, egg, cream):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Capersfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, butter, oyster, pepper, egg, cream. 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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