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Ham and Chicken Purée, Iced

A chilled purée of boiled chicken, cooked ham, liquid aspic, whipped cream, and mayonnaise, seasoned with cayenne pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Ham and Chicken Purée, Iced

Ingredients

Directions

Make the purée

  1. Mix the boiled chicken and cooked ham together.

  2. Pass the mixture through a mincing machine.

  3. Combine with liquid aspic, whipped cream, and mayonnaise.

  4. Season with cayenne and salt, and color a pale pink.

  5. Stir over ice briefly, then fill fancy moulds and freeze.

Serve

  1. Serve with a border of green salad, garnished with gherkins and ham strips.

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. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

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

  4. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Boiled chicken
Provides the main savoury body and protein of the purée.
Cooked ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour and firms the purée with its meat texture.
Liquid aspic
Sets as it chills, holding the purée firm when unmoulded.
Whipped cream
Adds air and fat, giving a light, smooth, creamy texture.
Mayonnaise
Contributes fat and emulsified richness, keeping the purée smooth and moist.

The step that matters

Stir over ice briefly, then fill fancy moulds and freeze.. Stirring over ice cools the mixture so it thickens without setting unevenly. If it warms, the whipped cream can deflate and the aspic may not hold a clean shape once chilled.

“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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