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Fricassee of Chicken a LA Redste

A chicken fricassee made with boiled chicken, celery, parsley, onion, and a sauce of butter, flour, gravy, egg yolks, milk, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Fricassee of Chicken a LA Redste

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the chicken

  1. Joint the chickens and place them in a large saucepan with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil slowly, then add celery, parsley, bay leaf, onion, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Test chicken with a fork to check doneness.

  5. Remove chicken from gravy.

  6. Keep warm over hot water.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, cook butter and flour until bubbling, without browning.

  2. Slowly add strained chicken gravy while stirring constantly.

  3. Boil for 2 minutes.

  4. In a bowl, mix egg yolks, milk, melted butter, and red pepper.

  5. Carefully add this mixture to the hot sauce, stirring continuously.

  6. Do not let the sauce boil again.

  7. Add lemon juice and mix well.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the chicken 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. 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. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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 is simmered until tender and then coated with sauce.
Butter
Forms a roux with flour, thickening the sauce and adding richness.
Flour
Combines with butter to form a roux that thickens the gravy into a smooth sauce.
Chicken gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it chicken flavor.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, adding body and smoothness when gently heated.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk mixture to the sauce. Egg yolks scramble if the sauce boils after they are added. Stirring constantly while adding the mixture and keeping the sauce below boiling lets the yolks thicken it smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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