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Moulded Chicken Salad

A gelatin-set chicken salad molded into a decorative shape, served with mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Moulded Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Cook the chicken in warm water with seasonings and vegetables until tender.

  2. Reduce the stock to 2 cups, strain, and remove the fat when cold.

  3. Clear the stock and add 2 tablespoons of softened gelatin in ½ cup cold water.

  4. Reheat the stock briefly to dissolve the gelatin.

Assemble the mold

  1. Prepare the chicken and celery as for chicken salad, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  2. When the stock thickens, beat in 1 cup of whipped cream along with the chicken and celery.

  3. Pour into a decorated mold with hard-boiled eggs, truffles, or olives held in place by a bit of stock.

  4. Mold in individual servings or one large mold.

Unmold and serve

  1. Remove from the mold onto a salad dish and garnish with lettuce or celery leaves.

  2. Serve with mayonnaise dressing.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Chicken + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together756 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Chicken + lettucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,421 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the stock so the salad holds its shape when unmolded.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture to the set mixture.
Chicken
Provides the main protein and body of the salad.
Celery
Adds crunch and a fresh, mild flavor to the chicken salad.

The step that matters

Remove the fat and clear the stock before adding gelatin. Fat left in the stock can make the jelly greasy and cloudy, and it can prevent a clean, firm set. Chilling and skimming the stock first gives a clearer, more appealing result.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, gelatin, cream, pepper, egg, truffle):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, gelatin, cream, pepper, egg, truffle. 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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