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Stewed Fowls

A stew of fowl or chicken with butter, carrot, onion, tomatoes, mushrooms, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 Fowls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Melt the butter in a large stewpan over medium heat.

  2. Fry the sliced carrot and onion for 5 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon.

Make the stew

  1. Add the pieces of fowl, pepper, and salt; mix in the flour thoroughly.

  2. Gradually add the stock and broken tomatoes, stirring well.

  3. Bring to a slow boil, then reduce to a simmer.

  4. Add the sliced mushrooms and chopped parsley.

  5. Bring to a boil again, then simmer for 10 minutes.

  6. Skim off any fat, baste, 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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl or chicken
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender as it simmers slowly in the stock.
Butter
Carries the frying of the vegetables and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce that coats the chicken.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the stew and carries its savoury flavour.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body, helping to flavour and loosen the sauce.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a soft, meaty texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Adding the flour to the chicken. Mixing flour into the pieces before liquid is added coats them evenly, so the flour can thicken the stock smoothly without lumps forming.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, carrot, pepper, flour, tomato, mushroom):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, carrot, pepper, flour, tomato, mushroom. 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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