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Creamed Chicken

A dish of pounded chicken mixed with egg yolks and shallot, steamed in a butter‑greased mold and served with tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Creamed Chicken

Why it works: Chicken and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,031 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Creamed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Pound the white flesh of the chicken in a mortar until it becomes a pulp.

  2. Pass the chicken through a sieve and return it to the mortar.

  3. Mix in the egg yolks and minced shallot until well combined.

Mold and steam

  1. Grease a plain mold with butter.

  2. Cut truffles into shapes and arrange them on the bottom and sides of the mold, sticking them to the butter.

  3. Fill the mold halfway with the pounded chicken mixture.

  4. Cover the top with a piece of paper and place the mold in a saucepan half full of hot water.

  5. Steam for 1.5 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with tomatoes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Shallot + tomatotop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together583 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together756 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Shallot + truffletop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together352 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the mold, setting into a smooth, sliceable custard-like texture when steamed.
Egg yolks
Bind the pounded chicken and help it set into a firm, tender texture when heated.

The step that matters

Steaming the mold gently. Egg proteins set best at moderate, steady heat. Steaming in a half-full pan of hot water with the mold covered keeps the temperature gentle and the moisture even, which helps prevent a rubbery or cracked texture.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, shallot, butter, truffle):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, shallot, butter, 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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