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 ↓
Fried Chickens
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Cut up the chickens as for fricassee.
Soak the pieces in cold water for 1 minute without wiping them.
Season each piece with salt and pepper.
Roll the pieces in flour.
Fry and serve
Fry in hot lard until golden brown.
Arrange on a hot serving dish.
Fry whole bunches of parsley in the lard and place over the chicken.
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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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,314 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 browned in hot fat.
- Flour
- Coats the chicken so the skin browns and crisps during frying.
- Lard
- Hot fat that fries the chicken and browns its coating.
The step that matters
Fry in hot lard until golden brown. The lard must be hot enough to brown the flour coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs more fat and turns greasy instead of crisp, and the chicken may cook unevenly.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, flour):
- Turmericfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, 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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