Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Creamed Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Rub together the butter and flour in a bowl until creamy.
Heat the cream or milk in a double boiler or a small tin pail set in hot water until scalding.
Add the butter and flour mixture to the hot milk, stirring well, and cook for 3 minutes.
Add chicken and egg
Stir in the parsley and chicken, cooking until the mixture is thoroughly hot.
Beat the egg yolks and mix in 2 tablespoons of milk.
Pour the egg mixture into the chicken mixture.
Cook for an additional 10 minutes and serve in a border of mashed potatoes.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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
- Cream or milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body when heated.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid into a sauce as it heats and cooks.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor, and helps smooth the flour into the sauce.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the sauce gently when heated with the hot mixture.
- Cooked chicken
- Provides the main protein and body of the dish.
The step that matters
Pour the egg mixture into the chicken mixture. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and can curdle if they get too hot too fast. Keep the heat low and stir steadily so the sauce turns smooth rather than grainy.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, chicken, pepper, butter, flour, egg):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Turmericfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, chicken, 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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