Why it works: Chicken and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,902 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Jellied Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the chicken
Boil the chicken in as little water as possible until the meat can be easily picked from the bones.
Ensure you have 1 pint of the liquid when done.
Prepare the meat and liquid
Remove the meat from the bones in small pieces, discarding all gristle and bone.
Skim the fat from the liquid, then add the butter, pepper, salt, and gelatine.
Dissolve the gelatine in a little cold water before adding it to the liquid.
Mold and set
Place the chicken in a mold that has been wet with cold water.
Pour the liquid over the chicken and refrigerate until cold and set.
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 + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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 is set in the jelly and the liquid that becomes the jelly.
- Gelatine
- Sets the cooking liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the jelly a smoother mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Dissolve the gelatine in a little cold water before adding it to the liquid.. Gelatine clumps if added dry or directly to hot liquid. Softening it in cold water first lets it disperse evenly, so the jelly sets uniformly without lumps.
“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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