Name: Fricassee Chicken
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, cleaned and cut up; ½ cup coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); water, enough to cover the chicken; ½ pound salt pork, cut into thin strips; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; pepper, to taste; 1 cup milk; 2 large eggs, beaten; 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon butter

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,417 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
Salt pork: Adds savoury fat and flavour to the cooking liquid as it renders.
Eggs: Thicken the milk gravy as they set with gentle heat.
All-purpose flour: Thickens the milk and egg mixture into a smooth gravy.
Milk: Forms the creamy base of the gravy.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky finish to the gravy.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture to the pot. Eggs can curdle if they meet hot liquid too quickly. Gradually adding a few spoonfuls of hot liquid while stirring tempers the eggs, so the gravy stays smooth when it is later poured into the pot and boiled gently.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pork, pepper, milk, egg, flour, butter):

Nutmegfits about as well
Thymefits about as well
Parsleythe original
Marjoramfits about as well

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

Fricassee Chicken