Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Quenelles of Chicken, Queen's Way
a dozen or fifteen ballsIngredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare a farce of chicken.
Shape and poach
Form a dozen or fifteen balls on a clean surface and flatten them into the shape of fillets.
Butter a deep sauté pan and arrange the quenelles evenly around it.
At dinner time, pour boiling water into the sauté pan and let the quenelles boil on low heat for twenty minutes.
Remove the quenelles with a slotted spoon and place them on a napkin.
Serve
Dish them neatly and serve with sauce au supréme.
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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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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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 + saucetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,513 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
- Farce of chicken
- Forms the body of the quenelles, giving them a soft, delicate texture when cooked.
- Butter
- Greases the sauté pan so the delicate quenelles release without sticking.
The step that matters
Poaching the quenelles at a low simmer. Boiling vigorously can break up the delicate chicken farce and make the quenelles tough or crumbly. Keeping the heat low lets them set gently and hold their shape.
“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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