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Chicken Fricassee

A stew of chicken, pickled pork, bay leaves, mace, and pastry squares simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Chicken Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the chicken and place it in a stew pan with cold water to cover.

  2. Skim the water just before it begins to boil.

  3. Trim and wash the pickled pork, then cut it into slices and add it to the pan.

  4. Add the bay leaves and mace to the pan.

Cook

  1. Cook the chicken for one hour or until tender.

  2. Add pepper and salt if needed.

  3. Cut the pastry dough into squares and add to the pan.

  4. Cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  5. Remove the bay leaves and mace 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. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Pork + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,565 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 stew and tender meat as it cooks slowly in water.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savoury flavour to the cooking liquid as it simmers with the chicken.
Pastry dough
Thickens the cooking liquid and becomes tender, soaking up flavour as it cooks in the pan.
Bay leaves
Contribute a subtle herbal aroma to the broth during the long simmer.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the water before it boils. Foam and impurities rise to the surface as the water heats. Skimming them just before boiling keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting. Letting it boil vigorously can cloud the liquid.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pork, pepper. 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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