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Boudin of Chicken and Truffles

A chicken boudin sausage made with truffles, eggs, cream, and spices, steamed in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,019 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Boudin of Chicken and Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Combine water, salt, and butter in a stew-pan and bring to a boil.

  2. Stir in enough flour to make a thick paste, then set aside to cool.

Make the filling

  1. Pound the chicken flesh in a mortar, then add half the paste and half the butter.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, minced shallot, and grated nutmeg, and mix well.

  3. Add one whole egg and three egg yolks to the mixture.

  4. Sieve the mixture and blend in the cream.

Steam and serve

  1. Grease a mold with butter and arrange sliced truffles inside.

  2. Fill the mold halfway with the mixture and cover with paper.

  3. Place the mold in a stew-pan half full of water and steam for 15 to 20 minutes.

  4. Carefully turn out and serve with truffle or tomato sauce.

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. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flesh from 1 fowl
Provides the main body of the boudin, setting into a delicate, tender mass when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firmly during gentle steaming.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling and keeps the paste tender.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, giving the filling a smoother, lighter texture.
Flour
Forms a thick paste that thickens the filling and gives it body.

The step that matters

Steam and serve. Steaming gently at a low, steady heat lets the egg-bound filling set evenly. Boiling vigorously can make it rubbery or cause it to crack, so keep the water below a hard boil.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Spinachfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg, egg, cream, truffle. 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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