Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Creamed Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the filling
Boil the chicken until tender, then cool, skim, and cut into small bits.
In a saucepan, heat the cream and mix in the flour and butter.
Let the mixture stand on the stove until it thickens.
Add the grated onion, chicken bits, and season with pepper and salt.
Bake and serve
Transfer to a baking dish, cover with bread crumbs and bits of butter.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
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 + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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, which becomes tender from boiling and forms the body of the dish.
- Flour
- Thickens the cream into a smooth sauce as it heats and stands.
- Cream
- Forms the rich base of the sauce and adds moisture and softness.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the sauce and browns the crumb topping.
- Onion
- Adds savory aroma and flavor that blends into the sauce.
The step that matters
Let the mixture stand until it thickens. Flour needs time and gentle heat to swell and thicken the cream fully. Adding the chicken before the sauce has thickened can leave it thin and runny, so wait until it is noticeably thick.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, butter, coffee, cream, pepper, bread):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Spinachfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, butter, coffee, cream, pepper, bread. 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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