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Fricasseed Chicken

A chicken fricassee made with whole chicken, onion, nutmeg, flour or cornstarch, milk, butter, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fricasseed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Clean and cut the chicken into joints.

  2. Place the chicken in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil and remove any scum that rises.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the minced onion and season with nutmeg to taste.

  2. Thicken the mixture with flour or cornstarch.

  3. Once cooked, add the boiling milk and butter. Stir to combine.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, garnished with chopped parsley.

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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein and body of the dish as it cooks in liquid.
Flour or cornstarch
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce as starch gelatinizes with heat.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness that softens the sauce's flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish to the sauce.
Onion
Contributes savory aromatic flavor as it softens in the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with flour or cornstarch. Starch must be fully cooked in hot liquid to swell and thicken; adding it too little or undercooking it leaves a raw floury taste and a thin sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, nutmeg, flour, milk, butter, parsley):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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