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Chickens to Fricassee

A chicken fricassee made with spices, stock, onions, mace, lemon peel, sweet herbs, and a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 ↓

Chickens to Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Season the chicken joints with mixed spices and white pepper.

  2. In a pot, combine gravy or stock, onions, mace, lemon peel, and sweet herbs.

  3. Add the chicken and stew gently for 30 minutes, covered.

  4. Remove the chicken and keep warm over boiling water.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the sauce, thicken it with butter rolled in flour, and add salt and nutmeg.

  2. Gradually stir in the heated cream and beaten egg yolks, ensuring it doesn't boil.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the chicken before serving.

  2. Garnish with lemon and add peas and lettuce if desired.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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, which becomes tender through gentle, covered stewing.
Butter and flour
Form a roux-style paste that thickens the strained liquid into a smooth sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, giving it body and a smooth finish.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks and cream. Egg yolks thicken by setting when heated. If the sauce boils, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture. Stir the cream in gradually and keep the sauce just below boiling.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, mace, lemon, butter, flour, nutmeg. 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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