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 and cut it into pieces: wings, legs, breast, and back.
Wash the chicken pieces in weak salt water for at least 30 minutes to extract blood.
Drain and dry the chicken with a clean towel half an hour before cooking.
Sprinkle a little salt over the chicken and coat each piece thickly with flour.
Fry the chicken
Heat hot lard in a frying pan and carefully add the chicken pieces, including the liver and gizzard.
Cover and fry until golden amber, then turn each piece over and cover again until fully cooked.
Remove the chicken and place it in a hot dish near the fire.
Make the gravy and serve
In the frying pan, add milk, butter, salt, and pepper to make the gravy, and let it boil.
Pour the gravy around the chicken, garnish with parsley, and serve.
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
- Flour
- Forms a thick coating that browns and crisps in the hot fat.
- Lard
- Conducts heat evenly and fries the coating to a golden, crisp crust.
- Milk
- Adds liquid and body to the gravy, making it smooth and creamy.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the gravy, along with a toasty dairy flavor.
The step that matters
Frying the coated chicken covered, then turning it. Frying too hot browns the flour coating before the thick pieces cook through, leaving the inside underdone. Covering traps steam that cooks the meat while the outside turns golden.
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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