Name: Chicken Oeoquettes
Ingredients: 2 cups minced chicken; ½ cup fine bread crumbs; 1 egg, beaten; gravy (or drawn butter) to moisten; coarse sea salt and pepper to taste; 2 hard boiled egg yolks, finely rubbed; flour for coating; dripping or a mixture of half lard and half butter for frying

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken Oeoquettes

Ingredients

2 cups minced chicken
½ cup fine bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
gravy (or drawn butter) to moisten
coarse sea salt and pepper to taste
2 hard boiled egg yolks, finely rubbed
flour for coating
dripping or a mixture of half lard and half butter for frying

Directions

In a bowl, combine minced chicken, bread crumbs, beaten egg, and enough gravy or drawn butter to moisten.
Add salt, pepper, and the rubbed egg yolks; mix gently to form a paste.
Shape the mixture into rolls or oval balls using floured hands.
Coat each piece in flour.
Fry in hot dripping or the lard-butter mixture, avoiding crowding.
Drain on a hot colander to remove excess fat.
Serve in a heated dish with cresses or parsley.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

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Chicken Oeoquettes