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Pressed Chicken, Mrs. C. Belford

A boiled chicken that sets into a jelly when cooled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,958 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Pressed Chicken, Mrs. C. Belford

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Place the cut-up chicken in a kettle with a tight cover to retain steam.

  2. Add 2 cups of water, salt, and pepper over the chicken.

  3. Cook until the meat easily separates from the bones.

Prepare and set

  1. Remove skin, bone, and gristle, then chop the meat as for chicken salad.

  2. Season well and place in a dish, pouring the cooking juice over it.

  3. Let it cool; it will jelly and can be sliced or served in shape.

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. 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

Chicken
Provides the meat that is cooked, chopped, and set into the dish.
Water
Creates the cooking liquid that becomes the juices which set into a jelly as it cools.

The step that matters

Let it cool. The jelly sets only as the cooking juice cools, because gelatin released from collagen in the bones and connective tissue firms when chilled. Cool it fully before slicing so it holds its shape.

“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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