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Fricassee of Cold Chicken

A fricassee made with cold chicken pieces simmered in a butter‑flour gravy with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fricassee of Cold Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the chicken

  1. In a frying pan, melt the butter and brown the chicken pieces.

  2. Remove the chicken and make the gravy.

Make the gravy

  1. Mix the flour with a little water and stir it into the chicken broth.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then add the cream or milk, a small piece of butter, and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Pour the gravy over the chicken before serving.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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 the meat that the gravy is served over.
Butter
Fat for browning the chicken pieces, adding richness and savory flavor.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a smooth gravy as it cooks.
Cream or sweet milk
Adds richness and body, softening the gravy's flavor and texture.

The step that matters

Bring the flour mixture to a boil. Flour must be fully mixed into the liquid and brought to a boil so its starch swells and thickens the gravy; without boiling, the gravy stays thin and may taste raw-floury.

“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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