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Chicken Custard

A custard made with chicken, stock, egg, celery salt, paprika, anchovy essence, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Custard

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Force the finely chopped chicken through a sieve.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chicken, chicken stock, egg, celery salt, paprika, salt, pepper, and anchovy essence.

Bake and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into a shallow pan to a depth of ¼ inch.

  2. Bake in a water bath at 400°F (200°C) until firm.

  3. Cool, remove from the mold, and cut into ¼ inch cubes.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Celery + anchovytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together246 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken
Forms the bulk of the custard and gives it its savoury meaty body.
Egg
Sets when baked and binds the chicken into a firm, sliceable custard.
Chicken stock
Adds moisture and liquid that the egg sets into a tender custard.
Paprika
Adds colour and a mild, sweet pepper flavour to the custard.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath until firm. Egg proteins set gently and evenly at moderate temperatures. Baking directly in a hot oven without a water bath can overcook the edges and make the custard grainy or rubbery, so the gentle surrounding water helps keep it smooth.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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