Why it works: Chicken and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,445 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-methylbutanol, which smells malty, whiskey. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Rub butter and flour together in a bowl until smooth.
Heat the mixture in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add the chopped chicken.
Add the whites of the hard-boiled eggs, pushed through a sieve.
Add the yolks mashed with a little cream.
Stir in the remaining cream.
Heat until hot.
Add the sherry.
Season with salt and pepper.
Serve.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Chicken + meattop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
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Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + sherrytop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,505 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together122,858 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + sherrytop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together891 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce and carries flavour, while the flour-butter paste thickens it.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth, stable sauce.
- Cream
- Adds richness and body, giving the sauce a smooth, silky texture.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Yolks enrich and thicken the sauce, and sieved whites add fine texture.
- Sherry
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich, creamy sauce.
The step that matters
Adding the yolks mashed with cream. Yolks thicken sauces through gentle heat, so the sauce should be heated only until hot. Boiling can make egg proteins curdle and leave the sauce grainy.
“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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