Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,516 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Grandmother Hannah Wadsworth
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Chop 1 cold chicken and one parboiled sweetbread quite fine.
Make a sauce of one cup of cream (hot), ¼ cup of butter, and 2 tablespoons of flour.
Add chicken and sweetbread to this, and salt and pepper to taste.
Heat and finish
Let it heat over hot water or in double boiler fifteen minutes.
Just before serving add the yolks of two eggs, well beaten, and a glass of sherry wine.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce and gives it a smooth, rich body.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the sauce feel smooth on the palate.
- Flour
- Thickens the cream and butter into a sauce that holds the chicken and sweetbread.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the sauce and add richness when stirred in near the end.
The step that matters
Just before serving add the yolks of two eggs. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat and can curdle or scramble if the sauce boils. Add them off the heat or at low heat, stirring steadily, so the sauce stays smooth.
“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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