Why it works: Pepper and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Steamed Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Steam the chicken
Rub the inside of the chicken with black pepper and coarse sea salt.
Place the chicken in a steamer over boiling water and cover.
Steam for 1.5 hours until cooked through.
Keep the chicken hot while preparing the dressing.
Make the dressing and serve
Cut the chicken into pieces and arrange on a platter.
For the dressing, boil the chicken gravy and add cayenne pepper and coarse sea salt.
Mix flour with heavy cream until smooth, then stir into the gravy.
Optionally, use corn starch instead of flour and add nutmeg or celery 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Pepper + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Chicken + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,666 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 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
- Whole chicken
- Provides the main protein that cooks through gently in the steam.
- Chicken gravy
- Forms the liquid base of the dressing and carries its seasoning.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the gravy as its starch swells when heated.
- Heavy cream
- Adds fat and richness, softening the dressing's flavor and texture.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour and cream into the gravy. Flour mixed with cream should be smooth before it goes into hot gravy, because lumps form when starch hits heat unevenly. Stirring it in well lets the starch thicken the gravy evenly.
“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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