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Chicken Pate

A jellied chicken dish made with isinglass, chicken, eggs, and optional ham or bacon, baked and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Chicken Pate

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Soak the isinglass in water.

  2. Simmer the chicken in water until the meat easily comes off the bones.

  3. Return the chicken bones to the simmering water to enrich the jelly.

  4. Slice the hard-boiled eggs and the chicken thinly.

Assemble

  1. Wet a plain mold and line it with slices of lemon and egg.

  2. Layer the chicken, egg, and optional bits of ham or bacon in the mold, seasoning with salt, pepper, and mace or nutmeg.

  3. Season the gravy, dissolve the isinglass in it, and pour over the layered chicken.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with a crust or tin cover and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

  2. Let it cool and serve cold the next day.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Chicken + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly once the gravy cools.
Chicken
Provides the main meat and body of the pâté.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firmness and a mild, rich texture to the layers.
Gravy from the chicken
Carries the flavour and, with isinglass, forms the savoury jelly.

The step that matters

Dissolve the isinglass fully in the seasoned gravy. Isinglass is a gelatin-like binder. If it is not completely dissolved, or the gravy is too hot or too cold when poured, the jelly will set unevenly or fail to set.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, pepper, ham, lemon):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, pepper, ham, lemon. 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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