Why it works: Chicken and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,027 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the stock
Place the chicken in 3 pints of water.
Season with peppercorns, allspice, and onions.
Simmer until the chicken is very tender.
Remove the chicken and reduce the stock to 1½ pints.
Set the aspic
Add Worcestershire sauce, tomato ketchup, and soaked gelatin to the stock.
Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
Wet and wipe a mold, then layer with slices of hard‑boiled egg and parsley.
Pour the stock through a fine sieve over the chicken pieces in the mold.
Refrigerate until congealed.
Serve
Turn out onto a platter and garnish as desired.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Chicken + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together6,027 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Chicken + oniontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,808 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Onion + tomatotop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together20,622 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Sauce + gelatintop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together104 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
- Gelatin
- Sets the stock into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
- Chicken
- Provides the meat and flavourful body that the stock is built on.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Add a contrasting texture and pale colour inside the set aspic.
The step that matters
Pour the stock through a fine sieve over the chicken pieces in the mold. Straining removes cloudiness and small particles so the aspic sets clear and smooth. Gelatin only sets reliably when the liquid is fully dissolved and cooled enough to thicken, so it should be poured before it sets.
Flavor stand-ins for the allspice
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, sauce, tomato, ketchup, gelatin, egg):
- Garlicbetter flavor fit
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- Capersbetter flavor fit
- Allspicethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, sauce, tomato, ketchup, gelatin, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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