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To Fricassee a Chicken

A stew of chicken pieces simmered with onion, vinegar, water, butter, parsley, egg, and optional nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Fricassee a Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a kettle, combine chicken, water, vinegar, grated onion, pepper, and salt.

  2. Cover and stew gently for 45 minutes.

  3. Add butter and chopped parsley.

  4. Just before serving, stir in the beaten egg.

  5. If desired, sprinkle with nutmeg.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 meat that becomes tender during gentle stewing.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
Beaten egg
Thickens the sauce slightly as it sets gently in the hot liquid.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg just before serving. Egg proteins set when heated, so adding it at the end and stirring gently thickens the sauce smoothly. If it boils for long or is added too early, it can curdle and turn grainy.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, vinegar, onion, pepper, butter, parsley, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, vinegar, onion, pepper, butter, parsley, egg. 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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