Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓
Stewed Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and simmer
Joint the chicken and place it in a stew pan.
Season with coarse sea salt and cover with water.
Bring to a boil, skim the surface, and add the juice of the lemon.
Cook until the chicken is tender.
Brown and make the gravy
Brown the chicken in its own fat, adding butter if necessary.
Once browned, remove the chicken from the pan.
To the remaining fat, add the can of mushrooms and the mashed liver.
Pour in enough milk to create a gravy and thicken with flour or corn starch.
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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Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,172 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Mushroom + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,231 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Chicken
- Provides the main protein and its own fat, which is used for browning and flavour.
- Chicken liver
- Mashed into the pan fat, it adds richness and body to the gravy.
- Flour or corn starch
- Thickens the milk and pan juices into a smooth, cohesive gravy.
- Milk
- Forms the base of the gravy, adding creaminess and softening its flavour.
- Mushrooms
- Add savoury, earthy flavour to the gravy.
The step that matters
Brown the chicken in its own fat. The chicken should brown in its own fat until golden, since the browned surface and pan residue give the gravy its colour and deeper flavour. Adding butter only if the pan runs dry helps prevent scorching.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, mushroom, liver, milk, flour):
- Coconutfits better
- Grapefits about as well
- Applefits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, mushroom, liver, milk, flour. 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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