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Planquette of Chicken

Chicken in a creamy lemon sauce served on toast with rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Planquette of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken and stock

  1. Cook the chicken until tender in boiling water with a teaspoonful of salt, a small onion, and two stalks of celery.

  2. Strain the stock and reduce it to one cup.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt two tablespoons of butter, stir in one tablespoon of flour.

  2. When the mixture is smooth, gradually stir into the stock and one-half cup of cream.

  3. Cook for ten minutes, then add two well-beaten yolks of eggs, cook for five minutes, but do not boil to avoid curdling.

  4. Remove from the heat, add two teaspoons of lemon juice.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cut the chicken into small pieces and add to the sauce.

  2. Serve on toast, surrounded by a border of rice.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

249Calories
8 gProtein
22 gFat
6 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. See the original page.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Tea + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Celery + teatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together82 recipes

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

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and enrich its texture when gently heated.
Butter
Forms the fat base with flour that begins the sauce.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but above a simmer they scramble and curdle. Keep the sauce below boiling once the yolks go in.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, egg, tea, lemon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, egg, tea, lemon. 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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