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Chickens with Peas

A dish of whole chickens braised with veal broth and bacon, served with peas sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,243 recipes. Both carry 3-butanedione, which smells buttery, creamy. The science ↓

Chickens with Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Truss the chickens as for boiling.

  2. Blanch them in boiling water for 5 minutes and wash them clean.

Braise

  1. Braise the chickens in veal broth with bacon slices until tender.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, wipe the chickens dry and lightly glaze the tops.

  2. Serve with peas sauce underneath.

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. Chicken + vealtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  2. Chicken + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,528 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Veal + peastop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together644 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Veal + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,072 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal broth
Provides moisture and savory flavor while the chickens braise.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor to the braising liquid and chicken.
Chickens
Form the main protein, which becomes tender through slow braising.

The step that matters

Braise until tender. Braising needs a gentle, steady simmer rather than a hard boil. Rapid boiling toughens the meat and dries the surface, while slow, moist heat softens the connective tissue into tender meat.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, veal, sauce):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, veal, sauce. 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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