Name: Baked Chicken German-style
Ingredients: ½ cup butter or margarine; ½ cup flour; 2 cups chicken broth; 1½ cups milk; 2 tsp lemon juice, fresh; ½ tsp salt; ½ tsp pepper; ¼ tsp nutmeg; 8 oz egg noodles, cooked and drained; 3 cups chicken, cooked and diced; ⅔ cup Parmesan cheese, grated; 2 tsp paprika

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

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.

Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter or margarine: Enriches the roux and adds richness and flavour to the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the sauce when cooked with the butter into a roux.
Chicken broth: Forms the savoury liquid base that gives the sauce its body and flavour.
Milk: Adds creaminess and mellowness to the sauce as it thickens.
Egg noodles: Provide the starchy base that holds the sauce and chicken together.
Parmesan cheese: Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Simmer the sauce until thick. Flour needs to cook long enough to lose its raw taste and to thicken the liquid fully. A sauce that is too thin will make the casserole watery once baked.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, chicken, milk, lemon, pepper, egg):

Parsleyfits about as well
Nutmegthe original
Tarragonfits about as well
Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, chicken, milk, lemon, pepper, egg. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Baked Chicken German-style