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Ham and Chicken Puree, Iced

A chilled puree of boiled chicken and cooked ham mixed with aspic, whipped cream, and mayonnaise, seasoned with cayenne and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Ham and Chicken Puree, Iced

Ingredients

Directions

Make the puree

  1. Mince the boiled chicken and cooked ham together.

  2. Mix in the liquid aspic, whipped cream, and mayonnaise.

  3. Season with cayenne and salt, then color to a pale pink.

  4. Stir the mixture over ice briefly.

Mold and serve

  1. Fill fancy molds or sandwich molds and freeze in an ice cave.

  2. Serve with a border of green salad, sprinkle with gherkins, and garnish with ham strips.

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. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled chicken
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the puree.
Cooked ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and a firmer meaty texture to the puree.
Liquid aspic
Gelatin-based liquid that sets when chilled, holding the molded shape.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, smooth texture to the puree.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and emulsified creaminess that keeps the puree smooth and moist.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture over ice briefly. Chilling while stirring cools the puree so it thickens slightly without setting in lumps. Over-chilling can make it stiff and hard to fill into molds evenly, while too little cooling leaves it too loose to hold its shape once frozen.

“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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