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Boned Chicken for Picnics

A boned chicken stuffed with boiled tongue, veal forcemeat, and ham, simmered in a herb broth and set with gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Boned Chicken for Picnics

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chickens

  1. Lay the boned chickens on a table.

  2. Spread a layer of sliced boiled tongue over the chickens.

  3. Add a layer of seasoned veal forcemeat.

  4. Top with slices of broiled ham.

  5. Roll each chicken up firmly.

  6. Tie each rolled chicken with kitchen twine.

Simmer and reduce the gravy

  1. Simmer the chickens in a deep saucepan with chicken bones, herbs, onion, carrot, and enough water to cover.

  2. Remove the chickens from the saucepan once they are tender.

  3. Let the gravy simmer until it is reduced to 1 pint.

  4. Dissolve the gelatin in a small amount of water.

  5. Add the dissolved gelatin to the gravy.

  6. Let the gravy cool until it nearly sets into jelly.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the jelly over the sliced chickens, which should be unbound but retain their shape.

  2. Garnish the platter with parsley sprigs and sliced 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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

Chickens
Provide the main body of the dish, and their meat is the centre of the cold roll.
Seasoned veal forcemeat
Adds a moist, savoury filling that fills the gaps inside the rolled chicken.
Gelatine
Sets the reduced gravy into a jelly that holds the sliced chicken together.
Chicken bones
Release flavour and body into the simmering liquid that becomes the gravy.

The step that matters

Letting the gravy cool until it nearly sets. Gelatine sets as it cools, so the jelly must be thick but still pourable. If it sets fully, it will not coat the slices evenly; if it is too warm, it will run off and leave the chicken uncoated.

“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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