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Chop Suey

A stir‑fry of chicken, veal, onions, celery, mushrooms, butter, and Chinese 'suey sauce' seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Chop Suey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, mix the chicken, veal, onions, celery, and mushrooms together.

Cook

  1. Melt the butter in a pan over low heat.

  2. Add the mixture to the pan and cover it.

  3. Cook slowly until everything is heated through.

  4. Stir in the Chinese 'suey sauce' and season with salt and pepper.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold chicken
Provides the main protein, which is already cooked and only needs warming through.
Cold veal
Adds a second meat with mild flavour and a tender texture when gently heated.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften during gentle cooking.
Celery
Adds crisp-tender texture and a fresh, slightly vegetal note.
Mushrooms
Release moisture and add savory, earthy depth to the mixture.

The step that matters

Cook slowly over low heat. The meat and vegetables are already cooked or tender, so gentle heat with a lid warms them evenly and keeps them moist. High heat would toughen the cold meat and could scorch the butter and onions before everything is heated through.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, veal, onion, mushroom, butter, sauce, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, veal, onion, mushroom, butter, sauce, 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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