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Another Fricassee

A chicken fricassee with bacon, butter, herbs, onion, mushrooms, and a creamy egg yolk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Another Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Skin the chickens and cut off the shanks and pinion bones.

  2. Separate the legs, wings, and breast.

  3. Break the leg bones with a rolling pin and remove the bones.

  4. Put the flesh into water and blanch over a stove, then soak the blanched flesh in cold water.

  5. Drain the flesh.

Stew

  1. In a stew-pan, combine the chicken with melted bacon, butter, herbs, onion, and mushrooms.

  2. Season the mixture with salt and pepper, and toss it over heat.

  3. Moisten the mixture with broth and water.

  4. Set the stew over a gentle fire.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg yolks in cream.

  2. Mix in parsley, peas, or asparagus tops.

  3. When the liquid reduces, thicken with the egg mixture without removing from heat.

  4. Serve when done.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  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

Chickens
Provide the meat that is cooked tender in the stew.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with the warm liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the sauce, and helps keep the yolks from curdling.
Melted bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor to the stew base.
Butter
Adds fat and a rich, nutty flavor to the stew.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture to the stew.

The step that matters

Thicken with the egg mixture off the boil. Egg yolks set at temperatures close to boiling and can scramble or curdle if the liquid is too hot. Thickening without removing the pan from heat is a delicate balance, so keep the heat gentle and stir constantly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, onion, mushroom, pepper, egg, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, onion, mushroom, pepper, 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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