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Stewed Chickens

A stew of whole chickens cooked with salt pork, onion, herbs, mace, lemon peel, and broth, thickened with browned flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Stewed Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pot

  1. Cover the bottom of a pot with slices of salt pork or corned ham.

  2. Sprinkle chopped onion, sweet herbs, mace, lemon peel, salt, and pepper over the meat.

Stew

  1. Add the chickens and cover with broth or water.

  2. Cover the pot tightly and stew until the chickens are tender, checking based on their size and age.

  3. Once cooked, remove the chickens and keep them warm.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain and skim the gravy, then thicken it with browned flour.

  2. Pour the thickened gravy over the chickens before serving.

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 + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and juicy as they stew.
Salt pork or corned ham
Adds savory fat and salty flavor that seasons the broth and meat.
Broth or water
Provides the cooking liquid that gently simmers the chickens and becomes the gravy base.
Browned flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the chicken.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Stewing until tender. Stewing gently in a tightly covered pot keeps the meat moist while collagen slowly breaks down. Older or larger birds need longer, so checking tenderness rather than relying on a fixed time prevents dry or tough meat.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pork, onion, lemon, pepper, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pork, onion, lemon, 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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