Name: Jellied Chicken
Ingredients: chicken, skin removed, cut into uniform pieces; 4 eggs; stoned or stuffed olives; pepper; coarse sea salt; cold aspic (jelly)

Why it works: Chicken and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,888 recipes. Both carry acetic acid hexyl ester, which smells sweet, green. The science ↓

Jellied Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the eggs for 25 minutes, then place them in cold water for 30 minutes. Peel and slice them into neat rounds.
Cut the olives in half.
Butter a mold or bowl well and line it with alternating rows of egg slices and split olives, rounded sides facing outward.
Add a layer of seasoned chicken, sprinkle with pepper and salt, and cover with a layer of cold, slightly coagulated aspic.
Repeat layering with chicken, aspic, and bits of chopped egg and capers until the mold is full.
Set the mold in a cold place for 10 minutes. In warm weather, place it on ice until ready to serve.
To serve, wrap a towel soaked in boiling water around the mold and invert it onto a cold platter.

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.

Chicken + olivetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,888 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).
Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,263 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,991 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Egg + olivetop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,340 recipes

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