Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Creamed Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken and sweetbreads
Cook the chicken and sweetbreads.
When the chicken and sweetbreads are cold, cut them up as for salad.
Make the cream sauce
Heat 1 quart of cream.
In another saucepan, put 4 large tablespoons of butter and 5 even tablespoons of flour.
Rub the butter and flour together until smooth; then pour in the hot cream, stirring until thick.
Add 4 onions, grated.
Season lightly with salt, black pepper, and red pepper.
Bake and serve
Mix the chicken, sweetbreads, and mushrooms with the cream dressing; stir together, put into a baking dish, cover with bread crumbs and lumps of butter, and bake.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Chicken | 100g cooked | 165 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter and flour 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
- Cream
- Thickened with the butter and flour, it forms the body of the sauce and makes it rich.
- Butter
- Combined with flour to form a roux that thickens the cream and adds richness.
- Flour
- Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the hot cream into a smooth sauce.
- Sweetbreads
- Provide the tender, meaty texture that the creamed dish is built around.
- Chicken
- Forms the main protein, cut into pieces and bound in the creamy sauce.
- Onion
- Grated into the sauce to add savory aroma and flavor.
The step that matters
Stirring the roux into the hot cream. Flour must be fully worked smooth with the butter before hot cream is added, and the mixture stirred constantly. This keeps lumps from forming and lets the starch swell evenly so the sauce thickens smoothly.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, chicken, butter, flour):
- Leekfits better
- Potatofits better
- Onionthe original
- Chivefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, chicken, butter, flour. 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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