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Chickens in Savory Jelly

Roasted chickens set in a clear, savory gelatin made from calf's feet, vinegar, lemon, mace, peppercorns, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Chickens in Savory Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the jelly

  1. Roast the chickens.

  2. Boil the calf's feet to make a strong jelly.

  3. Remove the feet and skim off the fat.

  4. Beat the egg whites and mix with vinegar, lemon juice, mace, peppercorns, and salt.

  5. Add this mixture to the jelly and boil for 5-6 minutes.

  6. Strain the jelly through a jelly bag until clear.

Set and serve

  1. Pour a little jelly into the bottom of a bowl and let it set.

  2. Place the chickens in the bowl with their breasts down and fill with the remaining jelly.

  3. Let it stand overnight.

  4. The next day, place the bowl in warm water until the jelly loosens.

  5. Invert the bowl onto a dish and serve.

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. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Chicken + white winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,904 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Form the main body of the dish, set within the clear jelly.
Calf's feet
Release gelatin as they boil, giving the jelly its firm set.
Egg whites
Collect impurities as they heat, helping the jelly become clear.
White wine vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the jelly.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and fresh flavour to the jelly.

The step that matters

Straining the jelly until clear. Egg whites must be boiled in and then strained out fully. Any leftover solids or cloudiness will stay in the set jelly and dull its clarity, so the strain should be patient and thorough.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, white wine, vinegar, lemon, egg, butter):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, white wine, vinegar, lemon, egg, butter. 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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