Skip to main content
Main

Chicken Mousse

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 the chicken

  1. Cook two five‑pound hens until the meat is very tender.

  2. Chop the meat, which will yield approximately six cups.

  3. Reserve the hot chicken stock.

Make the gelatine base

  1. Soak the gelatine in the cold water for five minutes.

  2. Add the boiling chicken stock to the gelatine. Stir until dissolved.

Set and serve

  1. Chill the mixture together.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold, preferably oblong or square.

  3. Chill the mold on ice for three to four hours.

  4. Serve on a lettuce leaf garnished with mashed yolk of hard‑cooked egg.

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

Gelatine
Sets the stock and chopped meat into a firm, sliceable mousse.
Whipped cream
Adds air and richness, giving the mousse a light, soft texture.
Chopped cooked chicken
Provides the main body and flavour of the mousse.
Chicken stock
Dissolves the gelatine and supplies moisture and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Soak the gelatine before adding hot stock. Gelatine must first hydrate in cold water so it dissolves evenly when hot stock is added. Adding it dry or to hot liquid without soaking can leave lumps and weak setting.

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.

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes