Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the chickens as for stew or fricassee.
Place them in a skillet and cover with water.
Season with coarse sea salt and a small amount of butter.
Simmer and brown
Cover the skillet tightly and simmer on low heat for about 1 hour, or until tender.
Just before removing, uncover the skillet and let the water simmer down completely.
Sprinkle flour over the chicken and turn to brown both sides.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,559 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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
What each ingredient does
- Tender young chickens
- Provides the meat that is cooked until tender and then browned.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the chicken as it cooks.
- Flour
- Coats the chicken so the surface browns when it is turned in the pan.
The step that matters
Letting the water simmer down completely. Water must cook off fully before the flour is added. Any remaining liquid stops the surface from browning and frying, leaving the coating soggy instead of crisp.
“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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