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Chicken Pate

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and biscuit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 368 recipes. Both carry maltol, which smells caramel, sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Pate

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine onion, nutmeg, salt, and pepper with egg yolks to make a smooth paste.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then thicken with powdered biscuit crumbs for about 10 minutes.

  3. Just before removing from heat, stir in cream and lemon juice.

  4. Remove from heat and add sherry; let cool.

  5. Mix the chicken with the stock and place in buttered ramekins or individual dishes.

  6. Sprinkle grated bread crumbs on top, brown in the oven, and serve very hot.

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. Nutmeg + biscuittop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together368 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  2. Onion + biscuittop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, milk, onion, nutmeg, egg, cream, biscuit):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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

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