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A Fricassee of Chicken

A chicken stew simmered with aromatics, thickened with a roux, finished with egg yolks, cream, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

A Fricassee of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Reserve the white meat and best pieces of the chickens for the fricassee.

  2. Place the trimmings and interior pieces in a porcelain kettle with cold water, clove, pepper, salt, onion, parsley, and pork.

  3. Simmer for 30 minutes, then add the reserved chicken pieces and boil slowly until cooked through.

  4. Remove the chicken and keep warm.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the gravy, remove the fat, and add a roux made from flour and butter.

  2. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and stir in egg yolks, cream, and lemon juice.

  3. Do not boil after adding the eggs to prevent curdling.

  4. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.

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. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  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

Chicken
Provides the main meat and flavour, with the bones and trimmings enriching the broth.
Flour
Forms a roux with butter that thickens the gravy into a smooth sauce.
Butter
Enriches the roux, adding richness and helping thicken the sauce smoothly.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, giving it a velvety body and silky texture.
Cream
Adds fat and softness, making the sauce richer and smoother.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances its flavour.

The step that matters

Do not boil after adding the eggs. Egg yolks contain proteins that set and curdle when overheated, so the sauce turns grainy. Removing it from heat before stirring in the yolks, cream and lemon juice keeps it smooth and silky.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, onion, parsley, pork, flour, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, onion, parsley, pork, flour, butter. 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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