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Fricassees

A French chicken dish simmered in wine, broth, herbs, and anchovies, finished with butter and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,019 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Fricassees

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Half boil the chickens, then cut them into pieces.

  2. Fry the chicken pieces in butter until golden brown.

  3. Remove the chicken and clean the pan.

Make the sauce

  1. Add white wine, strong broth, nutmeg, pepper, salt, sweet herbs, and shallots to the pan.

  2. Let the mixture stew on low heat with anchovies until it boils.

  3. Beat in butter and eggs until thick, then add the chicken and toss together.

Serve

  1. Serve with sippets, sliced lemon, and fried parsley.

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. Nutmeg + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. White wine + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together881 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten in to thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat.
Butter
Browns the chicken pieces and enriches the sauce with richness and smooth texture.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sauce.
Strong broth
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries its savory flavor.
Anchovies
Contribute deep savory flavor that rounds out the sauce.

The step that matters

Beat in butter and eggs until thick. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated and can curdle if the sauce boils hard after they are added. Keep the heat low and stir constantly so the sauce becomes smooth and thick rather than scrambled.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, white wine, pepper, shallot, egg, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, white wine, pepper, shallot, egg, bread. 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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