Why it works: Chicken and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,258 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity. The science ↓
Pressed Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Boil the chicken until very tender, ensuring there is plenty of liquid.
Separate the white meat from the dark meat.
Soak the bread slices in the chicken broth for a few minutes, then chop them with the dark meat.
Layer and set
Place the white meat in the bottom of a dish and pour a little broth over it.
Add a layer of the dark meat mixture on top.
Let it cool until set; it will turn out like jelly.
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 + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,258 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Provides the meat for the layers and the rich broth that sets into a jelly as it cools.
- Bread
- Soaked in broth and chopped with the dark meat, it adds body and helps bind the layer.
“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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