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Fricasseed Fowl

A stew of young fowl simmered with milk, herbs, spices, and finished with a lemon‑egg‑cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Fricasseed Fowl

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fowl

  1. Soak the fowl in cold water for 1 hour to blanch, then dry and dredge with baked flour.

  2. Place the fowl in a stewpan and cover with milk.

  3. Tie the shallot, parsley, thyme, tarragon, lemon peel, laurel leaf, mace, clove, and nutmeg in muslin and add to the stewpan.

  4. Add salt and sugar, bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 45 minutes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove the muslin bag, place the fowl on a hot dish, and pour strained lemon juice over it.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with cream, stir into the sauce over low heat for 3 minutes, then pour over the fowl and serve immediately.

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. Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Thyme + laureltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,444 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Thyme + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together528 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Provides the meat that is gently simmered until tender in the milk.
Milk
Forms the base of the sauce and cooks the fowl gently without browning.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they gently set over low heat, giving it body and richness.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, making the sauce smooth and silky.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich milk and cream sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk and cream into the sauce over low heat. Egg yolks set when heated, so if the sauce is too hot or boils, it can curdle or turn grainy. Keeping the heat low and stirring gently keeps it smooth and thickened.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, shallot, parsley, thyme, tarragon, lemon, laurel):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Fennelfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, shallot, parsley, thyme, tarragon, lemon, laurel. 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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