Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Fricassée of Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Cut off the wings and legs of the chickens.
Divide the breast from the back.
Chop the back into two pieces.
Remove the lungs and leg bones.
Place all pieces in cold water.
Blanch and trim
Boil water in a stewpan and add each chicken joint separately.
Boil until firm.
Transfer the chicken to cold water.
Trim each piece neatly.
Make the sauce
Place them in a stewpan with butter.
Add chicken trimmings to the blanching water with parsley.
Stew for one hour.
Strain the broth through a silk sieve into a bowl.
Add flour to thicken the sauce.
Moisten with the strained broth.
Simmer slowly.
Finish and serve
Remove chicken pieces and place in a clean stewpan.
Pass the sauce through a tammy over the chicken.
Heat the fricassée in a hot water bath.
Thicken the sauce with beaten egg yolks and cream.
Do not boil after adding the eggs.
Season with salt.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,787 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Chickens
- Provide the main protein, which firms when poached and then stewed in the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the stewed chicken and sauce.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the broth into a smooth, coating sauce as it heats.
- Egg yolks
- Proteins set gently in the sauce, thickening it and adding richness.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smoother texture to the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Do not boil after adding the eggs. Egg yolks thicken the sauce by gently setting their proteins. If the sauce boils after they go in, the yolks scramble and the sauce can curdle and turn grainy.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, flour, sauce, egg, cream):
- Capersfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, sauce, egg, cream. 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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