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Chicken Creamed

A creamy chicken mixture with butter, flour, milk, eggs, mushrooms, pepper, capers, nutmeg, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Creamed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt two tablespoons of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in two heaping tablespoons of sifted flour; when the mixture is creamy and smooth, gradually add a pint of hot milk, stirring constantly to prevent lumps, and let it boil once.

  3. Add one teaspoon of grated onion, a pinch of salt, and the yolks of two raw eggs; stir briskly.

  4. Dice two fresh mushrooms finely and fry them lightly in butter.

  5. Add one shredded sweet green pepper, a generous tablespoon of chopped capers, and a pinch of grated nutmeg to the sauce.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Dice the white meat of cooked chicken into small cubes.

  2. Cut the meat from a cold roast or boiled fowl into bits, but do not chop.

  3. Season with salt, white pepper, and a dash of nutmeg.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the diced chicken to the sauce and serve.

  2. Cook together in a saucepan a tablespoonful of butter and a tablespoonful of flour; when blended, pour a cupful of rich milk — half cream if available — and stir to a smooth white sauce.

  3. Put the saucepan in an outer pan of boiling water and stir into it the chicken.

  4. If more seasoning is needed, add it, and a teaspoonful of minced parsley.

  5. When heated through, fill pastry shells with the mixture, set in the oven until very hot, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

944Calories
33 gProtein
33 gFat
129 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Mushrooms1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a smooth white sauce.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and thicken the sauce as they are stirred in.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it body and richness.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor and helps form the roux that thickens the sauce.
Chicken (in the method)
Provides the main protein and substance of the creamed dish.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour and milk into a smooth sauce. Flour must be cooked smoothly into the melted butter and milk added gradually while stirring; otherwise lumps form that cannot be fully removed, and the sauce will not thicken evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, nutmeg, cream, parsley, flour, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, nutmeg, cream, parsley, flour, 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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