Why it works: Milk and butter 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
Cook the chicken
Cut the chicken into pieces and boil until the meat falls from the bones.
Once cool, cut the meat into small squares.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, thicken the cooking liquid with flour.
Add the milk and butter, then season with salt and pepper.
Stir in the chicken and cook for 10 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 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).
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 body and protein of the dish, becoming tender as it is boiled.
- Flour
- Its starch swells when heated in liquid, thickening the cooking liquid into a sauce.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy liquid base of the sauce and keeps it moist.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel in the sauce.
The step that matters
Thickening the cooking liquid with flour. Flour starch only thickens fully when heated with liquid and stirred, so the starch swells evenly. If the flour is added unevenly or not stirred, it forms lumps and the sauce stays thin or 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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