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Fricasseed Chickens

A baked chicken fricassée with a creamy sauce, pastry crust, and optional mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Fricasseed Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Trim the skin from the chicken.

  2. Mince the meat finely.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  4. Stir in the flour until smooth.

  5. Gradually add the chicken stock.

  6. Cook until the sauce thickens.

  7. Stir in the cream or milk.

  8. Season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  9. Remove from heat.

  10. Mix the minced chicken with the sauce.

  11. Add chopped mushrooms to the mixture.

  12. Transfer the mixture to a dish.

  13. Cover with greased paper.

  14. Let it cool.

Shape the pastries

  1. Roll out the pastry to ⅛ inch thick.

  2. Cut the pastry into 2-inch rounds.

  3. Place a spoonful of the chicken mixture on half of the rounds.

  4. Moisten the edges with water.

  5. Top with the other rounds.

  6. Press the edges together with a cutter.

  7. Brush the tops with egg.

  8. Place the pastries on a greased baking sheet.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until the pastry is golden.

  2. Remove excess pastry from the bottoms of the patties.

  3. Serve hot.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  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

Chicken meat
Forms the main filling, providing the bulk and savoury flavour of the dish.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour during the initial cooking of the roux.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce that holds the filling together.
Chicken stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding savoury depth.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture to the sauce.
Egg
Brushed on top, it promotes browning and a glossy golden crust.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce until thickened, then cool the filling. The flour must be cooked until the sauce thickens so it holds together. A runny or warm filling will soften the pastry and leak out during baking.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, meat, butter, flour, cream, pepper, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, meat, butter, flour, cream, pepper, mushroom. 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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