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Pressed Chicken

Tender chicken meat mixed with seasoned broth and gelatin, poured into molds and chilled until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Cook the chicken until very tender.

  2. Remove the meat from the broth and chop it moderately fine.

Make the broth

  1. Reduce the broth until you have ¾ cup for each chicken.

  2. Season the broth lightly with salt, pepper, and celery salt.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon of gelatin to the broth.

  4. Return the chopped meat to the broth and mix well.

Set and chill

  1. Pour the mixture into molds and refrigerate until set.

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. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Celery + gelatintop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together172 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  5. Chicken + gelatintop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the meat that forms the body of the pressed loaf.
Gelatin
Sets the reduced broth so the chicken holds its shape when chilled.

The step that matters

Reduce the broth to the right volume. Gelatin sets only if the broth is concentrated enough; reducing it to the stated volume concentrates the natural collagen and flavor so the mixture firms up when chilled.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, gelatin):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, gelatin. 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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