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Turkey or Chicken Fricassee

A fricassee made from turkey or chicken simmered with onions, parsley, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Turkey or Chicken Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the birds

  1. Draw and wash the turkeys or chickens thoroughly.

  2. Cut them up and place in a large pot, covering with water.

Cook

  1. Bring the water to a boil and skim off any foam.

  2. Add the chopped onions and boil for 1.5 hours.

  3. Season with pepper and salt, then add the chopped parsley.

  4. Simmer for an additional 20 minutes.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Turkey + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together532 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkeys or chickens
Provides the meat that becomes tender and flavours the broth during long simmering.
Onions
Release sweetness and savoury depth into the broth as they cook down.
Parsley
Adds fresh, aromatic flavour that is added late to keep its brightness.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam. Foam is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the water heats. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and prevents a bitter, greasy taste.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pepper, parsley. 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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