Why it works: Parsley and star anise share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 66 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the fricassée
In a large pan, melt the butter and brown the chicken pieces.
Add the flour and stir well, then pour in the broth and rum.
Season with salt, red pepper, and add the studded onion and herb bouquet.
Stir in the saffron and mushrooms, then cook until the sauce reduces.
Prepare the corn and pork
Prepare the corn by cooking it until tender.
In another pan, fry the pork in lard until nearly cooked, then add the corn.
Cover and cook for 20 minutes.
Serve
To serve, plate the chicken fricassée and garnish with mushrooms and blanched green peppers.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Parsley + star anisetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together66 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Clove + star anisetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together184 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + clovetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together13,144 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Chicken + oniontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,808 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
- Chicken
- Browned first to build flavour, then simmered until tender in the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the broth and rum.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps brown the chicken pieces.
- Broth
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries the seasonings.
- Rum
- Adds aromatic depth to the sauce as it reduces.
- Pork tenderloin
- Adds a second meat that is fried in lard until nearly cooked.
The step that matters
Reducing the sauce after adding saffron and mushrooms. Flour and broth form a thickened sauce only if it simmers long enough to reduce. Cooking too briefly leaves it thin, while overcooking can make it too thick or scorch the bottom of the pan.
Flavor stand-ins for the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, flour, rum, pepper, onion, parsley):
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Garlicbetter flavor fit
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, rum, pepper, onion, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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