Name: Fricassee of Spring Chickens, À LA Bourguignonne
Ingredients: spring chickens; butter; onions; mushrooms; white wine; coarse sea salt; black pepper; parsley

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Fricassee of Spring Chickens, À LA Bourguignonne

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the spring chickens into pieces.
In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat.
Add chopped onions and sauté until translucent.
Add chicken pieces and brown on all sides.
Stir in sliced mushrooms and cook for a few minutes.
Pour in white wine and season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through.
Garnish with chopped parsley 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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,172 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,765 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, onion, mushroom, white wine, pepper):

Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
Parsleythe original
Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, onion, mushroom, white wine, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.