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Pressed Chicken

A dish of stewed chicken pressed into a mold, then sliced and garnished.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pressed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chicken

  1. Stew the chicken until tender, allowing the stock to reduce.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones.

  3. Chop it finely, separating the light and dark meat.

  4. Add salt, white pepper, and celery salt to each type of meat.

Press and set

  1. Layer the meat in a mold.

  2. Pour the stock over the meat.

  3. Let it cool until firm.

  4. Turn out of the mold.

Serve

  1. Slice and place on a platter.

  2. Garnish with parsley or lettuce leaves.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. White pepper + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. White pepper + celerytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together853 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 pressed into a firm, sliceable loaf.
Chicken stock
Reduced during stewing and poured over the meat, adding moisture and flavor that helps it set.

The step that matters

Let it cool until firm. The pressed loaf only holds its shape once the stock has gelled as it cools. Turning it out or slicing too early can cause it to collapse, so it needs to cool fully and firm up in the mold first.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, parsley. 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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