Name: Spring Chickens Smothered in Mushrooms
Ingredients: 3 slices of pickled pork; 1 tablespoon of lard; a cup of boiling water; a cup of cream; 2 tablespoonsful of butter; black pepper; salt

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 ↓

Spring Chickens Smothered in Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

This old and tried New Orleans recipe is from a written book compiled from Mrs. R. O. Pritchard’s collected and original recipes, by Mrs. Theodore Shute, New Orleans, 1894.
_Contributed by Mr. Herbert L. Clark, Philadelphia, Pa._
Cut the chicken as for frying--in a skillet put 2 or 3 slices of pickled pork and 1 tablespoon of lard, put chickens in skin side up, put a pan or cover on top, and weight it to keep it down. Set skillet on a slow fire. When cooked on the under side put the skin side down. When this has browned add a cup of boiling water, still keeping closely covered, basting constantly. After chickens are browned remove weight and keep turning the chickens. It takes 2 hours of slow cooking to smother them soft and nice. When done rub a full teaspoon of flour in 2 tablespoonsful of butter. Add another cup of boiling water and a can of sliced mushrooms, or the fresh ones. Let this cook awhile. When about to send to table add a cup of cream. Season with black pepper and salt. If not rich enough add more butter.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

516Calories

28 gProtein

44 gFat

2 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

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

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,933 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Pork + creamtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,093 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).