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Pressed Veal or Chicken

A pressed meat dish made from stewed veal or chicken, mixed with butter, spices, and egg, then molded and garnished.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pressed Veal or Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. Place the veal or chickens in a pot.

  2. Cover the pot with water.

  3. Stew slowly until the meat falls off the bone.

  4. Remove the meat from the pot.

  5. Boil down the cooking liquid until you have 1 cup.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the meat finely.

  2. Add the butter to the meat.

  3. Add the black pepper to the meat.

  4. Add the allspice to the meat.

  5. Add the beaten egg to the meat.

  6. Mix the meat mixture well.

Press and serve

  1. Slice the hard-boiled egg.

  2. Layer the sliced egg in a mold.

  3. Press the meat mixture into the mold.

  4. Garnish with celery tops or parsley when serving.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Veal + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal or chickens
Provides the meat that becomes the body of the pressed dish once stewed and chopped.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the chopped meat moist and tender when pressed.
Beaten egg
Binds the chopped meat together so the mixture holds its shape in the mold.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent seasoning that cuts through the richness of the meat and fat.

The step that matters

Boil down the cooking liquid until you have 1 cup. The reduced stock concentrates gelatin and flavor from the bones and meat, so the dish can set firmly when pressed and chilled. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, pepper, egg, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, pepper, egg, celery. 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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