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Quenels of Fowl

Quenelles of fowl are savory dumplings made from shredded fowl, ham, herbs, mushrooms, eggs, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Quenels of Fowl

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine the scraped fowl, fat ham, lean ham, parsley, thyme, shallot, and mushrooms in a mortar, then pound the mixture until well combined.

  2. Add the egg yolks and mix well before folding in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Poach and serve

  1. Bring the stock to a boil in a pot on high heat.

  2. Using a large spoon, scoop the quenel mixture and drop it into the boiling stock using a teaspoon until all is added.

  3. Remove the quenels with a slotted spoon as you would poached eggs.

  4. Serve with white Italian sauce poured over the quenels.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl white meat
Forms the main body of the quenelles, giving them a soft, tender structure once cooked.
Fat ham
Adds fat that keeps the quenelles moist and rich as they cook.
Egg whites
Beaten and folded in, they help the quenelles set light and hold their shape.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness and tenderness to the quenelles.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air that gives the quenelles lightness. Folding gently keeps that air in, while vigorous stirring deflates it and leaves dense quenelles.

“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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