Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Chaud-froid De Volaille
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the chicken
Boil the fowl in enough water to cover it, adding garlic, cloves, allspice, salt, and bay leaf.
Cook until the meat is tender and falls from the bones.
Remove the meat, chop it finely, and season with salt and pepper.
Assemble the terrine
Rinse a smooth mold with cold water.
Layer the bottom with slices of cold hard-boiled egg, followed by a layer of chopped chicken, and repeat until the mold is filled.
Boil the chicken broth down to about 1½ cups, strain, and season with pepper, salt, and cayenne if needed.
Pour the broth over the chicken in the mold.
Refrigerate for several hours until firm, then turn out and serve with salad.
Variation
For a variation, let the broth cool, mix with an equal amount of rich Mayonnaise Sauce, and fill the mold with this mixture and chicken.
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.
-
Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,090 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,368 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fowl
- Provides the meat that is chopped and set into the terrine as the main body.
- Cold hard-boiled eggs
- Add firm slices that contrast with the chicken layers when the terrine is cut.
- Chicken broth (in the method)
- Sets into a savory gel around the chicken, holding the layers together when chilled.
The step that matters
Boil the broth down to about 1½ cups. The broth needs enough reduction to concentrate its gelatin and flavor; a thin broth may not set firm when chilled.
Swap the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, allspice, egg, pepper, sauce):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against clove, allspice, egg, pepper, 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.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipes