Name: Fricasseed Chicken
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, cut into pieces; 1 cup lettuce, shredded; 1 cup new potatoes, boiled; 1 cup canned tomatoes; 1 cup corn-dodgers; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Potato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 938 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fricasseed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a large pot, boil the chicken pieces until cooked through.
Remove the chicken and let it cool, then shred the meat.

Serve

In a serving dish, arrange the shredded chicken, lettuce, new potatoes, canned tomatoes, and corn-dodgers.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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.

Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together938 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,099 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lettuce + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together322 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Provides the main protein and the meat that is shredded for the dish.
New potatoes: Add starchy bulk so the dish feels substantial alongside the meat.
Canned tomatoes: Add moisture and acidity that brighten the rich chicken.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, potato, tomato, corn, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Okrafits better
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, potato, tomato, corn, pepper. 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.