Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the chicken as usual.
Dredge the chicken thoroughly in well-salted flour.
Cook
Brown the chicken evenly and quickly in lard and butter.
Add hot water and let the chicken steam until tender.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,559 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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
- The main protein, which cooks through and becomes tender as it steams.
- Flour
- Forms a seasoned coating that browns and crisps in the hot fat.
- Lard
- Frying fat that conducts heat to brown the coating and chicken.
- Butter
- Adds flavour and helps the chicken brown evenly in the pan.
- Hot water
- Turns to steam that cooks the chicken through and keeps it moist.
The step that matters
Brown the chicken evenly and quickly in lard and butter. Browning sets the seasoned flour coating and builds color and flavor through the Maillard reaction. Uneven or slow browning leaves pale patches and can soak up extra fat, so the pieces should be turned and given room in the pan.
“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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