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Pressed Chicken

A chilled chicken dish with eggs, mushrooms, broth, butter, and gelatin, served with lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Pressed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chicken mixture

  1. Boil the chicken in 2 cups of water with salt and pepper until the bones can be easily removed.

  2. Pick the chicken into small pieces and add the chopped egg whites, mashed yolks, chopped mushrooms, chicken broth, melted butter, and dissolved gelatine.

  3. Heat the mixture through but do not cook.

Press and serve

  1. Pour into a mold and press down.

  2. Garnish with slices of lemon.

  3. Serve each person with a piece of lemon.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Clove + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 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
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the dish.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and firm, sliceable texture to the pressed mixture.
Gelatine
Sets the chicken mixture so it holds its shape when pressed and chilled.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and a soft, moist texture.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture through but do not cook. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and evenly mixed to set properly, but overheating can weaken its gelling power and toughen the egg and chicken proteins, so heat gently only until warm.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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