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
Boil the chickens until they fall apart.
Remove the meat from the bones and discard the skin.
Season the meat with salt and pepper.
Place the meat in a deep tin or mold.
Set and serve
Dissolve the gelatine in a little warm water.
Add the dissolved gelatine to the liquid left in the kettle and boil until it thickens.
Pour the thickened liquid over the chicken and let it cool.
Slice for serving.
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.
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 and the cooking liquid that becomes the jelly.
- Gelatine
- Sets the cooking liquid into a firm jelly that holds the pressed meat together.
The step that matters
Thickening the liquid before pouring. The gelatine must dissolve fully and the liquid must reduce enough to thicken when cooled. If it is too thin, the jelly will not set firm and the slices will fall apart.
“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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