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Chicken Tamales

A baked dish of minced chicken mixed with green pepper, tomato, butter, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Tamales

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix together the minced chicken, chopped green pepper, and chopped tomato.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce.

Shape and bake

  1. Add melted butter and the egg yolk to bind the mixture.

  2. Form the mixture into balls and place them on a baking sheet.

  3. Bake in the oven until heated through.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Minced chicken
Provides the main protein and body of the filling.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the filling moist as it bakes.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture together so it holds its shape when formed into balls.

The step that matters

Add melted butter and the egg yolk to bind the mixture.. The egg yolk sets with gentle heat and holds the chopped filling together. Adding it to a cold, loose mixture and mixing only until combined keeps the binding even and the balls from crumbling in the oven.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, sauce, butter, egg. 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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