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To Fricassee a Chicken

A stew of chicken simmered in milk and water with herbs, finished with a creamy egg yolk mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Fricassee a Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. In a pot, combine the chicken, milk, water, parsley, mace, thyme, lemon peel, and salt.

  2. Stew the mixture for 1 hour over medium heat.

Finish the sauce

  1. Before serving, beat the egg yolks with the sweet cream in a bowl.

  2. Gradually stir the egg and cream mixture into the pot, ensuring it does not boil.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Chicken + thymetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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, as it stews, flavours the liquid.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, giving it a rich body.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, making the sauce smooth and silky.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the sauce and adds mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the egg and cream mixture. Egg yolks curdle and turn grainy if they get too hot. Stirring gradually and keeping the pot below boiling lets them thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, milk, parsley, thyme, lemon, egg, cream):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, milk, parsley, thyme, lemon, egg, 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.

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