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
Clean and cut up the chickens.
Stew them in enough water to cover.
When nearly cooked, season with salt and pepper.
Let them stew until the water is mostly boiled out and the meat falls from the bones.
Remove bones and gristle; chop the meat coarsely.
Return the meat to the stew kettle with the remaining broth (skim off fat).
Heat through again.
Transfer to a square bread pan, place a platter on top, and add a heavy weight.
Let it set until firm, then slice.
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
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