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 ↓
Breaded Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the chicken
Cut the chickens into pieces as for fricassee.
Dip each piece in beaten egg.
Coat each piece with bread-crumbs or rolled cracker.
Season the pieces with pepper, salt, and minced parsley.
Bake
Place the pieces in a baking pan and top each with a lump of butter.
Add ½ cup of hot water to the pan.
Bake at 300°F (150°C), basting often.
Once cooked, transfer the chicken to a warm platter.
Make the sauce and serve
In the pan, pour in 1 cup of cream or rich milk.
Add 1 cup of bread-crumbs to the pan.
Stir well until cooked.
Pour the sauce over the chicken.
Serve while hot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,258 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Young chickens
- Provide the meat that is cooked through and served as the main dish.
- Beaten egg
- Acts as a binder so the bread-crumb coating sticks to each piece.
- Bread-crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating and thicken the sauce as they cook in the pan.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, helping the coating brown and the chicken stay moist.
- Cream or rich milk
- Adds richness and body to the pan sauce.
The step that matters
Stir the sauce until cooked. Cream or milk can scorch or separate if left unattended, and bread-crumbs can clump if not stirred in evenly. Constant stirring keeps the sauce smooth and evenly thickened.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, bread, pepper, butter, cream):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Garlicfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, bread, pepper, butter, 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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