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Chicken Mousse

A chilled chicken mousse made with cooked chicken, whipped cream, chicken stock, gelatin, celery, green pepper, pimientos, salt, pepper, and cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook two 5-pound hens until the meat is very tender.

  2. Chop the meat to yield approximately 6 cups.

  3. Reserve the hot chicken stock.

Make the mousse

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the boiling chicken stock to the gelatin and stir until dissolved.

  3. Chill the mixture together.

  4. Pour into a mold and chill on ice for 3 to 4 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve on a lettuce leaf garnished with mashed yolk of hard-cooked egg.

  2. May be served with or without mayonnaise.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Cream + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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 body and savoury flavour of the mousse.
Whipped cream
Adds air and richness, giving the mousse a light, smooth texture.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid so the mousse holds its shape when chilled.
Chicken stock
Supplies moisture and flavour, and dissolves the gelatine.
Celery
Adds a slight crunch and fresh flavour to the soft mousse.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatine completely. Gelatine must fully dissolve in the hot stock before the mixture cools. Undissolved granules or uneven setting leave the mousse grainy or lumpy instead of smooth and firm.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Rosemaryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, cream, 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.

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