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To Fricassee Chickens

A chicken fricassee made with butter, lemon, anchovy, mace, nutmeg, thyme, flour, egg yolks, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Fricassee Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Skin the chicken and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Wash the pieces in warm water and dry them with a cloth.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Stew and thicken

  1. Place in a stew-pan with water, butter, lemon, anchovy, mace, nutmeg, and lemon thyme.

  2. Stew until the chicken is tender.

  3. Remove the chicken and thicken the gravy with flour and butter, then strain it.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg yolks and mix with cream, then add to the gravy.

  2. Heat gently without boiling, then pour over the chicken.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

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

  3. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 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

Chicken
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through slow stewing in liquid.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with butter, giving it body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the gravy when gently heated, adding richness and a silky texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and helps form the thickened base of the gravy.
Lemon thyme
Adds a fresh, citrusy aroma that flavours the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Heat gently without boiling. Egg yolks thicken when warmed but can curdle and turn grainy if they get too hot or boil. Gentle heat keeps the gravy smooth and creamy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, lemon, anchovy, nutmeg, thyme, flour):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, lemon, anchovy, nutmeg, thyme, flour. 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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