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Little Chicken Creams

A chilled chicken cream set in aspic, topped with lettuce, tomatoes, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Little Chicken Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Line the moulds

  1. Line double moulds with aspic jelly.

Make the filling

  1. Pound the pâté.

  2. Mix in ½ cup of liquid jelly, cream, and seasoning; rub through a sieve.

  3. Mince the chicken finely and add it to the mixture.

  4. Remove the centers from the moulds and fill them with the mixture.

Set and turn out

  1. Once set, turn onto an entrée dish.

Plate and serve

  1. Sprinkle with shredded lettuce.

  2. Create a border of tomatoes.

  3. Pour mayonnaise sauce around.

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. Lettuce + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken
Provides the main body and bulk of the creams.
Pâté de foie gras
Adds richness, fat and a deep savoury flavour to the filling.
Aspic jelly
Gelatin sets as it cools, giving the creams their firm shape.
Cream
Adds moisture and a smooth, soft texture to the filling.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds fat and a creamy coating around the set creams.

The step that matters

Turning out after setting. The shape depends on the aspic being fully set. Gelatin firms as it cools, so unmoulding too early can tear or slump the creams. Let them chill until firm before turning them out.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, chicken, cream, pepper, tomato, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

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

“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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