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 ↓
Fried Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Kill the chicken.
Cut the chicken into pieces: wings, legs, breast, and back.
Wash the chicken pieces in weak saltwater for at least 30 minutes to extract blood.
Drain the chicken pieces.
Dry the chicken pieces with a clean towel 30 minutes before cooking.
Sprinkle a little salt over the chicken pieces.
Coat each piece thickly with flour.
Fry
Heat hot lard in a frying pan.
Add the chicken pieces, including the liver and gizzard, to the pan.
Cover the pan.
Fry the chicken until golden amber.
Turn each piece over.
Cover the pan again until the chicken is fully cooked.
Remove the chicken and place it in a hot dish near the fire.
Make the gravy and serve
Add milk, butter, salt, and pepper to the drippings in the pan.
Let the mixture boil.
Pour the gravy over the chicken, avoiding pouring directly on it.
Garnish the chicken with parsley before serving.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,389 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Provides the meat that is cooked through by frying and covered steaming.
- Flour
- Forms a thick coating that browns during frying and crisps the outside.
- Lard
- Conducts heat for frying and gives the coating its golden color and rich flavor.
- Milk
- Combines with the pan drippings to form a smooth, creamy gravy.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the gravy.
The step that matters
Drying the chicken before coating and frying. Surface moisture turns to steam in hot fat and pushes the flour coating off, so the pieces may not brown or crisp evenly. Drying them well helps the flour stick and the skin fry crisp.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, milk, butter, pepper):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Thymefits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, milk, butter, pepper. 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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