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Chicken Fricassee

A stew of chicken, celery, oysters, and butter thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Place the cut-up chicken in a stew pan and cover with cold water.

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

  3. Add the sliced celery roots and 1 tablespoon of butter.

  4. Cook the chicken for 1 hour.

Finish and thicken

  1. Stir in the chopped parsley, salt, and pepper.

  2. Mix 1 tablespoon of butter with 1 heaped tablespoon of flour and stir into the chicken.

  3. Let it simmer slowly for 15 minutes.

  4. Add the fresh oysters and remove from heat as soon as it begins to boil again.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 protein and savory flavor of the stew as it simmers in water.
Celery roots
Add a mild, earthy flavor and body as they soften in the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the broth.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, lightly bound sauce when cooked with butter.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, delicate seafood flavor that is brief heat keeps tender.

The step that matters

Add the oysters and stop at the first boil. Oysters toughen and turn rubbery when overheated, so they should be added at the end and removed from heat as soon as the liquid boils again.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, parsley, pepper, flour, oyster):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, parsley, pepper, flour, oyster. 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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