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Poulet a LA Princesse.

A boiled whole chicken served with a creamy sauce made from butter, flour, chicken broth, egg yolks, cream, and spices, garnished with asparagus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Poulet a LA Princesse.

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Truss the chicken and place it breast down in a pot.

  2. Cover with water and add salt, carrots, onions, and herbs.

  3. Cook the chicken slowly for about 30 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pan, melt 4 ounces of butter.

  2. Add 4 ounces of flour.

  3. Add ¾ pint of chicken broth.

  4. Season with pepper and nutmeg.

  5. Cook for 15 minutes.

  6. Beat the egg yolks and mix them with the cream.

  7. Add this mixture to the sauce and strain it through a fine sieve.

  8. Stir in 2 ounces of butter until the sauce is smooth.

Serve

  1. Remove the chicken, drain it, and place it on a piece of fried bread.

  2. Pour the sauce around it and garnish with asparagus points.

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

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

  2. Carrot + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the sauce when gently heated and enrich it with richness and body.
Butter
Melted butter with flour forms a roux that gives the sauce its base and smooth richness.
Flour
Flour cooked in butter thickens the chicken broth into a smooth, stable sauce.
Double cream
Cream adds fat and softness, giving the sauce a rich, smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk and cream mixture. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if the sauce is too hot when they are added. Stirring them in off the heat or over gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth and thickened.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, carrot, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg, egg. 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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