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Pickled Chicken

Chicken is boiled, removed, and pickled in cider vinegar and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Pickled Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Boil the chickens until the meat is tender and falls from the bones.

  2. Remove the meat and place it in a stone jar.

Pickle

  1. Pour the cold cider vinegar and the boiling water over the meat.

  2. Add spices if desired.

  3. Let it sit for two days before using.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Chicken + cidertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together374 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the meat that is softened by boiling and then preserved in the pickling liquid.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the meat and gives it a sharp, tangy flavor.
Water from boiling chickens
Carries chicken flavor into the pickling liquid and dilutes the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Let it sit for two days before using.. The acid in the vinegar needs time to penetrate the meat and flavor it evenly. Using it early leaves the meat sharp on the outside and bland inside.

“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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