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Chicken Custard

A baked custard made with bread crumbs, chicken, egg yolks, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Custard

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Take the crumbs from the center of a stale loaf and add the finely chopped chicken.

  2. Beat the egg yolks until well mixed, then add the salt, celery salt, and milk.

  3. Pour this mixture over the bread crumbs and chicken, mixing thoroughly.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill a custard cup with the mixture, place it in a pan of hot water, and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + chickentop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Celery + chickentop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Soak up the liquid and give the custard its body and structure.
Egg yolks
Set as they heat, thickening the mixture into a firm custard.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness so the custard stays tender rather than dry.
Chicken
Provides the main flavor and protein throughout the custard.

The step that matters

Baking in the water bath. Egg proteins set gently at moderate heat. The hot water bath keeps the custard from overheating, which would cause it to curdle, turn grainy, or form holes.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, chicken, milk):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, chicken, milk. 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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