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In Fricassee

A fricassee of giblets, onions, and mushrooms in a butter‑flour sauce with parsley, nutmeg, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

In Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt butter in a stewpan over medium heat.

  2. Gradually sprinkle in flour, stirring with a wooden spoon until thickened and brownish.

  3. Add warm broth, warm water, parsley, nutmeg, onions, salt, and pepper.

Cook the giblets

  1. Incorporate the giblets and cook for about 2 hours.

  2. After 1 hour, add mushrooms.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooked, dish the giblets and strain the sauce.

  2. Mix in the beaten egg yolk and lemon juice, then pour over the giblets.

  3. Top with mushrooms and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Giblets
Main protein, which becomes tender during the long, slow simmer in the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce when cooked in melted butter, giving body and a browned colour.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness and flavour to the sauce base.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the finished sauce, giving it a smoother, creamier texture.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the broth as they cook down.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a soft texture to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Mix in the egg yolk. Adding egg yolk to a hot sauce can scramble it. Stir a little hot sauce into the beaten yolk first to temper it, then combine gently over low heat without boiling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, parsley, nutmeg, pepper, mushroom, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, parsley, nutmeg, pepper, mushroom, egg. 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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