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 ↓
Boiled Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Clean the chicken and stuff it as for roasting.
Bind the legs and wings to the sides and tie in a net.
Place the chicken in boiling water.
If unsure, use cold water and cook slowly.
When done, unwrap the chicken and place it on a dish.
Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and butter.
Cover the chicken while preparing the sauce.
Make the sauce
Remove one cup of the broth.
Cool the broth.
Skim off the fat from the broth.
Combine the broth with one tablespoon of butter rolled in flour in a saucepan.
Stir the mixture to a boil.
Take off the heat.
Gradually pour in the beaten eggs.
Return the saucepan to the heat.
Add minced parsley.
Heat until almost boiling.
Serve
Pour the sauce over the chicken.
Reserve the remaining broth for soup.
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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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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 the broth that becomes the sauce.
- Eggs
- Thicken the sauce gently as they set with heat, giving it a smooth, rich body.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the broth when cooked with butter, giving the sauce body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the sauce and seasoning to the chicken.
The step that matters
Gradually pour in the beaten eggs. Eggs curdle if they hit a hot liquid too fast. Adding them slowly off the heat, then warming gently and not boiling, keeps the sauce smooth and thickened.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, butter, flour, egg):
- Parsleythe original
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Turmericfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, butter, flour, egg. 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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