Name: Chickens Boiled
Ingredients: plump chickens; white sauce; white broccoli

Why it works: Chicken and broccoli are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,237 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Chickens Boiled

Ingredients

plump chickens
white sauce
white broccoli

Directions

Select plump chickens for the best flavor.
Boil the chickens until cooked through, which takes less time than a fowl.
Serve with white sauce and garnish with tufts of white broccoli.

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.

Chicken + broccolitop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,237 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Sauce + broccolitop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together652 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,513 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).