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Pressed Chicken

A chilled chicken dish where the meat is boiled, chopped, seasoned, pressed into shape, sliced, and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pressed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Boil the chicken until the bones can be easily removed.

  2. Once cold, chop the chicken finely.

Press and serve

  1. Add the butter, salt, pepper, and sage.

  2. Stir all ingredients together and press into any shape.

  3. Cut into slices and serve cold.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Butter + sagetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the bulk of the dish and, once chopped and pressed, gives it its body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the chopped meat bind and feel moist.

The step that matters

Pressing the chopped chicken into shape. Pressing the mixture firmly while it is cold lets the chicken pieces and butter bind together, so the set shape holds its form when sliced.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, egg, 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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