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Vermicelli, with Boiled Chicken

A stew of boiled chicken, bacon, cloves, and vermicelli in a butter‑flour stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Vermicelli, with Boiled Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Truss the chicken for boiling.

  2. Place the trussed chicken in a stewpan with the bacon, inserting the cloves into the bacon.

Make the stock

  1. Mix the butter and flour to create a smooth paste.

  2. Add the paste to the stewpan.

  3. Pour enough white stock to cover the chicken and bacon.

  4. Let it stew gently for 45 minutes.

  5. Add the vermicelli to the stock. Boil until tender.

Serve

  1. Remove the chicken and bacon, placing them in separate dishes.

  2. Skim the stock.

  3. Pour the stock with the vermicelli over the chicken.

  4. Serve very 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Clove + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,671 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

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

  4. Clove + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Chicken + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,682 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 main body of the dish and flavours the stock as it stews.
Bacon
Adds smoky, savoury fat that flavours the stock during the long stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the stock, carrying flavour.
Flour
Thickens the stock when mixed with butter into a paste.
Vermicelli
Softens in the stock and turns it into a starchy, substantial part of the dish.

The step that matters

Mixing the butter and flour into a smooth paste. Flour lumps stay dry and stay in the stock if not fully blended into the butter first. A smooth paste disperses evenly, so the flour thickens the liquid without lumps.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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