Name: Mb. Demorbst^s Chicken Fricassee
Ingredients: 2 plump chickens; ½ pound good, sweet salt pork, cut into pieces; water, for covering; 1 tablespoon flour; cold milk, as needed; dried or chopped parsley, to taste; dried or chopped sage, to taste; dried or chopped thyme, to taste; dried or chopped summer savory, to taste; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; green tops of celery, for garnish

Why it works: Thyme and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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.

Thyme + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together214 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together237 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,485 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together241 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens: Provide the meat that becomes tender during long, slow simmering.
Salt pork: Adds savoury fat and flavour to the cooking liquid as it stews.
Flour: Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy when stirred in and boiled.
Cold milk: Mixed with flour first so the thickener disperses without lumps, and adds richness to the gravy.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour with cold milk until smooth. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps, because its starch granules gelatinise on the outside before they can disperse. Blending it into cold milk first keeps the particles separate so the gravy thickens evenly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pork, flour, milk, sage, thyme, summer savory):

Marjoramfits better
Rosemaryfits about as well
Parsleythe original
Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pork, flour, milk, sage, thyme, summer savory. 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.

Mb. Demorbst^s Chicken Fricassee