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Fricassee of Prairie Chicken

A fricassee made with prairie chicken, onion, garlic, herbs, broth, butter, flour, mushrooms, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fricassee of Prairie Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Clean and singe the chicken, cut it into joints, and flatten them slightly.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the chicken, onion with cloves, thyme, parsley, bay leaf, and enough broth to cover the chicken.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the chicken is tender.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter, add flour, and stir until combined.

  2. Strain the cooking liquid into the butter mixture, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.

  3. Add sliced mushrooms and boil for a few minutes, then add the chicken pieces.

  4. Stir in the beaten egg yolk, then serve immediately.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Prairie chicken
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through slow simmering in broth.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour when melted with flour.
Flour
Thickens the sauce by forming a roux with the melted butter.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce when stirred in at the end.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently but can scramble if the sauce is too hot. Adding it off the heat or with the sauce just below a boil, while stirring constantly, keeps it smooth and creamy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, thyme, parsley, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, thyme, parsley, butter, flour, pepper. 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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