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Chickens

A baked dish of boiled ham and chicken mixed with clarified butter, mace, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chickens

2 or 3 servings each
Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mix the lean and fat ham with clarified butter, mace, pepper, and salt in a mortar until very fine.

  2. Add the pounded white part of the fowl without seasoning to balance the flavor.

Bake

  1. Layer the ham and chicken mixture in a small deep pan, pressing it down firmly.

  2. Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour.

  3. Pour clarified butter over the mixture to a thickness of about ¼ inch.

  4. Cover with oiled paper once the butter is dry.

Pot and preserve

  1. After cooling, transfer to pots, ensuring they hold 2 or 3 servings each.

  2. Pour additional butter over the top to preserve.

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. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  4. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Lean boiled ham
Provides the main meaty flavor and body of the mixture.
Fat from boiled ham
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the mixture soft and spreadable.
Clarified butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and seals the surface against air.
White part of the fowl
Adds lean, delicate protein that binds into a smooth, firm texture when pounded.

The step that matters

Pounding the ham and fowl until very fine. Thorough pounding breaks the meat into fine fibers and distributes the fat evenly, giving a smooth, cohesive texture instead of a grainy or crumbly one.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, pepper. 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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