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Fried Chicken

A dish of chicken pieces dredged in flour, egg, and cracker crumbs, fried in butter and lard, served with a cream gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Fried Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Wash and cut up the chicken, then wipe it dry.

  2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

  3. Dredge each piece in flour or dip in beaten egg and then in cracker crumbs.

  4. For older chicken, simmer in a little water until tender, then season, dredge, and fry as above.

Fry and make the gravy

  1. In a frying pan, heat the butter and lard until boiling hot.

  2. Add the chicken and fry until brown on both sides.

  3. Remove the chicken, drain, and set aside in a covered dish.

  4. In the remaining gravy, stir in the flour and make it smooth.

  5. Add the cream or milk, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.

Serve

  1. Pour the gravy over the chicken and 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Flour and butter 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

Chicken
Provides the meat that is cooked through and browned in the fat.
Eggs
Bind the cracker crumbs and flour coating to the chicken so it adheres during frying.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that browns in the fat and thickens the gravy.
Cracker crumbs
Add a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
Butter
Adds flavor and helps the coating brown in the frying fat.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness, giving the gravy a smooth, creamy body.

The step that matters

Frying the chicken until brown on both sides. Fat must be boiling hot before the chicken goes in; otherwise the coating absorbs grease and turns soggy instead of crisp. Crowding the pan drops the temperature and causes the same problem.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, flour, egg, butter, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, flour, egg, butter, 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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