Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Creamed Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a chafing dish.
Add the flour or cornstarch and cook until smooth, stirring constantly.
Pour in the milk or cream and cook until the raw taste of the flour disappears.
Season with salt, paprika, and Worcestershire sauce.
Finish and serve
Stir in the chicken and heat through.
Serve immediately on toast or crackers.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,389 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, 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
- Flour or cornstarch
- Thickens the milk or cream into a smooth, creamy sauce.
- Milk or cream
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce and gives it richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour and helps the flour cook smoothly into the sauce.
- Chicken
- Provides the main protein and substance of the dish.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour into the butter. Stirring constantly while adding the flour keeps it from clumping, so the sauce cooks smooth. Cooking until the raw flour taste disappears matters because undercooked starch tastes pasty.
“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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