Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
A Fricassee of Fowl
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Draw, pick, wash, and singe the chicken.
Cut off the head, legs at the first joint, and wings at the second joint.
Place the chicken in a clean 3-quart stewpan and cover with warm water.
Add the onion, a little salt, and parsley.
Bring to a boil for 10 minutes.
Remove the chicken and let it drain for 3 minutes.
Make the sauce
In the chicken broth, add the butter and flour, stirring thoroughly to make a sauce.
Blanch the mushrooms in just enough water to cover them for 5 minutes.
Add the lemon juice.
Strain the mushroom water into the sauce.
Set the mushrooms aside.
Cook and serve
Cut the chicken into 10 pieces, keeping the skin on.
Cook in the sauce for 20 to 25 minutes.
Arrange the chicken on a dish.
Pour the sauce over it.
Garnish with mushrooms.
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.
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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,768 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Young fowl
- Provides the main body of the dish, cooked gently in water until tender.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce with fat, adding smooth body and rich flavour.
- Flour
- Thickens the broth into a smooth sauce that clings to the chicken.
- Mushrooms
- Add earthy flavour and a savoury note to the sauce and garnish.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich, creamy sauce.
The step that matters
Adding the flour and butter to the broth. Flour must be stirred thoroughly into the hot broth so no lumps form. Dry flour clumps when it meets liquid, and whisking it into fat and liquid together keeps the sauce smooth and evenly thickened.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, mushroom, lemon, butter, flour, parsley):
- Shallotfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against clove, mushroom, lemon, butter, flour, parsley. 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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