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Winter Biles of Fare

A dish of boiled chicken served with rice and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Winter Biles of Fare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fowl

  1. Prepare the fowl for roasting and bind it in muslin or mosquito net.

  2. Boil the fowl in water for 12 minutes per pound.

  3. Remove 1 cup of broth from the pot. Strain the broth. Chill the broth in ice-cold water to remove grease. Skim off the grease. Season the broth with salt and pepper.

Make the rice

  1. Boil 2 cups of rice for 10 minutes. Drain the rice. Mix the rice with the skimmed broth.

  2. Cook the mixture in a farina kettle until tender, shaking occasionally. Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter, minced parsley, and a beaten egg. Cook the mixture for 1 minute.

  3. Spread the rice 2 inches thick on a hot platter. Place the boiled chicken in the center of the rice.

Make the gravy

  1. Heat another cup of broth. Strain the broth. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour. Cook until thickened.

  2. Season the gravy with salt, pepper, a beaten egg, and minced parsley. Cook the gravy for 10 minutes 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.

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

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

  2. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

  3. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Absorbs the broth and cooks into a tender, soft base that holds the dish together.
Egg
Sets when cooked, binding the rice mixture and adding body to the gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and giving a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the fat and broth.
Broth
Supplies moisture and savory flavor to both the rice and the gravy.

The step that matters

Chilling and skimming the broth. Fat that is not removed stays liquid on top and can make the rice and gravy greasy. Chilling solidifies the fat so it can be lifted off cleanly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Turmericfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, egg, 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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