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Maryland Fried Chicken with Corn Dodgers

Maryland fried chicken served with fried cornmeal mush called corn dodgers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Maryland Fried Chicken with Corn Dodgers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Clean and wipe the chicken pieces.

  2. Heat lard in a deep pan and fry the chicken until well browned and thoroughly cooked.

  3. Remove cooked chicken to a hot platter.

  4. Pour off excess lard, leaving the chicken gravy in the pan.

Make the cream sauce

  1. Add 1 cup of cream to the pan and add a little flour to the cream.

  2. Stir the mixture and bring to a boil.

  3. Let boil for three minutes.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Pour the sauce over the chicken.

Fry the corn dodgers and serve

  1. Slice the cold cornmeal mush.

  2. Dip lightly in flour and fry in butter.

  3. Garnish the platter with corn dodgers.

  4. Serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Browns in hot lard to form a crisp, flavorful crust while cooking through.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and adds rich flavor and browning to the chicken.
Cream
Forms the base of the sauce, adding richness and body to the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the cream sauce as it boils, giving it a smooth, coating consistency.
Cornmeal mush
Firm when cold, so it can be sliced and holds its shape when fried.

The step that matters

Boiling the cream sauce. Flour needs to be stirred in evenly and kept at a boil so its starch swells and thickens the cream. Undercooked flour leaves a pasty taste and a thin sauce.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, cream, flour, pepper):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, cream, flour, pepper. 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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