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How We Cook in Tennessee

A chicken dish cooked in a cream sauce with butter, flour, eggs, mushrooms, and sherry, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Boil the chicken and remove the bones.

  2. Cut the chicken meat into cubes.

Make the cream sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine one pint of nice cream, a tablespoon of butter, and a teaspoon of flour; season with salt and pepper.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it thicken.

  3. Beat two eggs into the cream mixture and cook.

  4. Stir in the chicken and half a pint of the water in which it was boiled.

  5. Add one can of mushrooms and let the mixture cook for a few minutes.

  6. Just before serving, add a wineglass of sherry.

Serve

  1. Serve the creamed chicken on toast.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

590Calories
46 gProtein
35 gFat
16 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Chicken + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together891 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten into the cream mixture, they thicken it and give it body as they cook.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the cream mixture as it comes to a boil.
Cream
Forms the rich, smooth base of the sauce.
Chicken
Provides the main protein and body of the dish.
Mushrooms (in the method)
Add earthy flavor and a tender texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs into the cream mixture. Eggs can scramble if added to hot liquid too quickly. Stirring the mixture while adding them and cooking gently lets the eggs thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, chicken, egg, sherry, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, chicken, egg, sherry, 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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