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Smothered Chickens

A dish of chicken smothered in a butter and flour gravy, finished with milk and optional parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Smothered Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut the chickens open down the back and lay them flat in a dripping pan with 1 cup of water.

  2. Stew in a 350°F (175°C) oven until they begin to get tender.

  3. Remove from the oven and season with salt and pepper.

Brown and baste

  1. Rub together the flour and butter.

  2. Spread the flour and butter mixture over the chickens.

  3. Return to the oven.

  4. Baste well and cook until tender and nicely browned.

  5. Remove from the dripping pan.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Mix the gravy with 1 cup of milk.

  2. Heat on the stove until it scalds.

  3. Pour the gravy over the chickens.

  4. Garnish with chopped parsley if desired.

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.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

Flour and butter 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

Chickens
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow stewing and browning in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the drippings and milk into a smooth gravy, helping it cling to the chicken.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the flour coat the chicken and brown evenly.
Milk
Forms the base of the gravy, adding creaminess and a mild, rounded flavor.

The step that matters

Heat the gravy until it scalds. Milk thickened with flour must be heated enough for the starch to swell and set into a smooth gravy. Stopping short leaves it thin, while overheating can scorch the milk on the bottom of the pan, so keep it moving and watch closely.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, flour, butter, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, flour, butter, milk. 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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