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 the chicken
Kill the chicken and cut off the wings, legs, and breast.
Wash the chicken well and soak it in weak saltwater for at least 30 minutes.
Drain and dry the chicken with a clean towel half an hour before cooking.
Sprinkle a little salt over the chicken and coat it thickly with flour on both sides.
Fry the chicken
Heat hot lard in a frying pan.
Carefully add each piece of chicken, including the liver and gizzard, to the pan.
Cover and fry until golden amber.
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 pan sauce and serve
In the frying pan, add milk, butter, salt, and pepper to the drippings.
Let the mixture boil and pour it over the chicken, avoiding direct contact.
Garnish with curled 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
- Chicken
- Provides the meat that is cooked through by frying while the coating crisps.
- Flour
- Forms a thick coating that browns in the hot fat and crisps the outside of the chicken.
- Lard
- Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the crust.
- Milk
- Combines with the pan drippings to form a light, savoury sauce that adds moisture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the pan sauce.
The step that matters
Fry the chicken until golden amber and fully cooked. Frying over moderate heat with the lid on lets the flour coating brown and crisp while the heat reaches the thick pieces of meat. Too high a heat can brown the coating before the inside cooks through.
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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