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Chicken Dressing

A bread-based chicken dressing made with eggs, milk, butter, celery, onion, corn meal, and chicken broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crumble the bread into a pan.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the crumbled bread with beaten eggs, milk, butter, celery, onion, corn meal, and black pepper.

  2. Pour the cooled chicken broth over the mixture and mix thoroughly to achieve the right consistency.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake until set and serve with chicken.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Celery + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together920 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the bulk of the dressing and soaks up the liquid to give body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the bread for a tender crumb.
Chicken broth
Moistens the mixture and adds savory flavor throughout.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer texture.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Pour the cooled chicken broth over the mixture and mix thoroughly. The broth must be cooled so it does not start cooking the beaten eggs before baking. Thorough mixing spreads the liquid evenly so the dressing bakes uniformly and sets without dry or soggy patches.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, milk, butter, celery, corn, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, milk, butter, celery, corn, pepper. 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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