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 ↓
Fried Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Cut up and wash the spring chicken, then soak it in salt water for a short time.
Remove the chicken from the water, dry it with a cloth, and roll it in flour.
Fry and steam
In a frying pan, heat equal parts of butter and lard (or drippings).
Place the chicken pieces close together in the pan and season with salt and pepper.
Cover the pan tightly.
When browned, turn the pieces to brown the other side.
Once both sides are brown, add 2-3 tablespoons of hot water and cover again to steam the chicken until tender.
When the water has evaporated, uncover and cook until the chicken is brown and crisp.
Make the gravy and serve
To make the gravy, add 1 heaping tablespoon of flour to the pan and stir for a few minutes.
Add enough milk to achieve the desired gravy consistency, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve in a gravy boat.
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 + 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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Chicken + milktop 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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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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
- Spring chicken
- Provides the meat that is browned, steamed until tender, and then crisped.
- Butter and lard
- Fat for frying that browns the chicken surface and carries flavor into the crust.
- Flour
- Coats the chicken for browning and, once cooked in the pan, thickens the gravy.
- Milk
- Liquid that turns the pan drippings and flour into a smooth gravy.
The step that matters
Steaming, then uncovering to crisp. Covering with a little water steams the chicken through so it becomes tender. Once the water evaporates, the chicken must be uncovered so the surface can brown and crisp rather than stay soft.
“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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