Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Fried Chickens
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Heat the lard in a frying pan until hot, about ½ inch deep.
On a plate, mix flour with salt and pepper.
Roll the chicken pieces in the seasoned flour.
Fry and serve
Fry the chicken in the hot fat until brown and tender, turning once.
Remove the chicken and place it on a hot dish.
Add cream to the frying pan, stirring constantly to make gravy.
Season the gravy with salt and pepper, then pour it over the chicken and serve.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Chicken
- Provides the meat that turns tender while the coating browns and seals in juices.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms a seasoned coating that browns in the hot fat and gives the crisp crust.
- Lard
- Heats to frying temperature, conducting heat evenly and browning the coating.
- Cream
- Adds fat and milk solids that thicken the pan drippings into a smooth gravy.
The step that matters
Frying the chicken in the hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. Too hot and the outside burns before the meat cooks through.
“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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