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Fricasseed Chicken

A stew of chicken pieces simmered in a cream and yolk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Fricasseed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut the chickens.

  2. Sprinkle the pieces with salt, pepper, and spices.

  3. Put the water in a kettle.

  4. Lay the chicken skin side down.

  5. Slice the onion over the chicken.

  6. Cover closely.

  7. Simmer until done.

  8. Remove the chicken and keep it hot on a platter.

Make the gravy

  1. Thicken the gravy.

  2. Rub the butter and flour together.

  3. Add a little gravy to soften and mix.

  4. Stir the mixture into the gravy.

  5. Boil for 2-3 minutes.

  6. Pour in the cream.

  7. Once it boils, pour it over the beaten yolks.

  8. Return the mixture to the saucepan.

  9. Heat thoroughly without boiling.

  10. Pour 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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the meat that is simmered until tender and served in the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the gravy when rubbed with butter and stirred in.
Butter
Blends with flour to form a roux that helps thicken the gravy and adds richness.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the gravy.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce when gently heated with the gravy.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and flavor to the chicken as it simmers.

The step that matters

Heat the yolk mixture without boiling. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heating, but if the mixture boils they can curdle and turn grainy. Heat it only until thick and hot.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

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