Skip to main content
Main

To Make a White Fricassee of Chicken

A classic method of stewing chicken pieces, then finishing them in a butter and cream sauce seasoned with salt and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓

To Make a White Fricassee of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut a couple of chickens into pieces, skin and clean them perfectly, and lay in cold water to draw out the blood.

  2. Dry the chicken pieces in a clean cloth.

  3. Put the chicken pieces in a stewpan with a sufficient quantity of milk and water mixed in equal proportions.

  4. Stew the chicken over a gentle fire until thoroughly tender.

Make the sauce

  1. Set another stewpan over the fire and pour into it half a pint of cream and a quarter pound of butter.

  2. Keep stirring all the while the butter is melting, so that the cream and butter mix well together.

  3. Mix carefully together until perfectly done.

Combine and serve

  1. Take the pieces of chicken out of the first stewpan with a silver fork or silver tongs and put them into the butter and cream.

  2. Add a little salt and mace, beaten to a powder, and a couple of spoonfuls of pickled mushrooms, or some of the pickle without them.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

153Calories
0 gProtein
17 gFat
0 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot 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 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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes
  3. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Butter and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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

Chicken (in the method)
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender and firm-textured through slow simmering.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce as it melts into the cream.
Cream
Forms the body of the white sauce, giving it a rich, velvety texture.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Keep stirring while the butter melts into the cream. Butter and cream can separate or curdle if heated unevenly or left still. Constant stirring over gentle heat keeps the emulsion smooth and glossy.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Macethe original
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes