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Quenelles of Chicken, with Mushrooms

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Quenelles of Chicken, with Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the chicken breasts into pieces and pound them.

  2. Mix the pounded chicken with panada and butter gradually until smooth.

  3. Season with salt and nutmeg, then add egg yolks.

  4. Pass the mixture through a sieve into a bowl and stir in double cream.

  5. Test the consistency by poaching a spoonful in boiling water; it should be smooth.

  6. Mold fifteen quenelles using two tablespoons and place them in a buttered sauté pan.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, egg, cream):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Garlicfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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