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Chicken Jelly

A chilled gelatinous dish made from chicken consommé, lemon, cayenne, salt, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Chicken Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify the consommé

  1. Let the chicken consommé cool and remove all fat.

  2. Add the lemon rind and juice, cayenne, salt, and egg whites with shells to the consommé.

  3. Mix well without frothing the egg whites.

  4. Heat the mixture slowly and bring it to a brisk boil for 10 minutes.

  5. Set it aside on the hearth for 5 minutes to settle.

  6. Pour through a jelly bag without squeezing it.

Set the aspic

  1. Rinse a bowl or mold with cold water and pour the jelly in.

  2. Set aside to harden.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Chicken + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Chicken consommé
Forms the clear liquid base that sets into the jelly.
Whites and crushed shells of 2 eggs
Bind to fine particles as they coagulate, clarifying the liquid into a clear jelly.
Rind and juice of 1 lemon
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the flavour of the jelly.

The step that matters

Heat slowly and avoid frothing the egg whites. Egg whites must be gently warmed and mixed without whipping so they coagulate and trap impurities in a clear layer. Frothing or stirring vigorously can cloud the jelly and spoil clarity, while a brief rolling boil sets the clearing raft that is then strained off.

“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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