Why it works: Butter and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Jellied Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Boil the fowl until the meat slips easily from the bones, reducing the water to about 1 pint.
Remove the meat from the bones in good-sized pieces, discarding gristle, fat, and bones.
Place the meat in a wet mold.
Make the jellied broth
Skim the fat from the broth.
Add butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt to the broth to taste.
Season the broth well, as the chicken will absorb the flavors.
Dissolve the gelatine in the hot broth and pour it over the chicken.
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.
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fowl
- Provides the meat and the broth that becomes the jelly.
- Gelatine
- Sets the broth into a firm jelly when it cools.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth fat note to the broth.
The step that matters
Season the broth well. Chilling dulls perceived saltiness and the chicken will absorb flavor from the broth, so the broth must taste well seasoned before it sets.
“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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