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Coquilles De Poulet Aux Cornichons

Chicken salad with pickles and mayonnaise served in shell-shaped dishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and capers work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 473 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Coquilles De Poulet Aux Cornichons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Combine the diced chicken and pickles in a bowl.

  2. Add several tablespoons of mayonnaise to bind the mixture.

Shape and finish

  1. Spoon the mixture into shell-shaped serving dishes.

  2. Smooth the top with a small knife.

  3. Cover with a layer of mayonnaise.

  4. Decorate with beet details, anchovy fillets, capers, and gelatin.

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. Anchovy + caperstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Anchovy + gelatintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Chicken + caperstop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together397 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Chicken + anchovytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Chicken + gelatintop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken
Provides the bulk and protein of the filling.
Pickles
Adds acidity and crunch that cut through the rich mayonnaise.
Mayonnaise
Binds the chicken and pickles together and adds moisture and richness.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, anchovy, gelatin):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersthe original
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, anchovy, gelatin. 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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