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Fricassee of Chicken

A stew of chicken, salt pork, onion, and a milk‑flour‑egg sauce.

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 ↓

Fricassee of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pluck and singe the chicken. Wipe it with a wet towel and draw it carefully.

  2. Cut the chicken into joints.

Stew

  1. In a saucepan, combine the chicken, salt pork, and onion.

  2. Cover with boiling water, add salt and white pepper, and stew gently until the chicken is tender.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix flour with milk to form a smooth paste and add it to the fricassee.

  2. Let it boil for two minutes, then stir in the egg yolks and serve immediately.

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. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, sauce-like body when boiled.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, adding richness and a silky texture.
Milk
Mixed with flour to form a smooth paste that adds body and creaminess to the sauce.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and flavor to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the sauce boils after they are added, they can curdle and turn grainy. Remove from heat or keep it just below boiling before serving.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pork, onion, flour, milk, egg):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pork, onion, flour, milk, egg. 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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