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Pressed Chicken

Boiled chicken meat pressed into a loaf after seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Chicken and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,958 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Pressed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Boil the chickens in 1 cup of water with a little coarse sea salt until thoroughly cooked.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones and discard the skin.

  3. Separate the light meat from the dark meat.

Press and serve

  1. Chop the meat and season with salt and black pepper to taste.

  2. In a crock or pan, layer the light and dark meat until all is used.

  3. Add the cooking liquid (about 1 cup) and place a heavy weight on top.

  4. Once cooled, slice the pressed chicken.

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the meat that is cooked, pressed and sliced into the finished loaf.
Cooking liquid (in the method)
Adds moisture and flavor that helps the pressed meat hold together and stay tender.

The step that matters

Add the cooking liquid and press under a heavy weight. The cooking liquid moistens the meat, and the weight compacts the pieces so they bind into a sliceable block once cooled. Too little weight or liquid can leave the pressed chicken loose and dry.

“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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