Why it works: Chicken and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,991 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Chicken Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a saucepan, heat the chicken broth until warm.
In a bowl, beat the eggs and gradually mix in the warm chicken broth.
Season with coarse sea salt to taste.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens.
Serve
Serve warm or cold, with thickened chicken broth if 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,991 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Coagulate as they cook, thickening the broth into a soft custard.
- Chicken broth
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs set into a savoury custard.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard over low heat while stirring constantly. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures and can scramble if the heat is too high or the mixture sits still. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the custard smooth and evenly thickened.
“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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