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Poultry, Boudins, or French Puddings, of

A savory pudding made from roasted poultry, baked potatoes, butter, eggs, and seasonings, formed into a ball and poached.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Poultry, Boudins, or French Puddings, of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove the skin from the bird and draw out the sinews.

  2. Mince and pound the flesh until smooth.

Make the filling

  1. Mix in the baked potatoes and season with salt, cayenne, and pounded mace.

  2. Add butter equal to the weight of the meat and pound the mixture after each addition.

  3. Gradually mix in the whole eggs, egg yolks, and white sauce, along with chopped mushrooms or cooked onions.

  4. Ensure the mixture is not too moist by forming a small ball and poaching it in boiling water for five minutes.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Partially roasted bird
Provides the main meat that gives the filling its body and flavour.
Baked potatoes
Add starch and softness, helping the mixture hold together and stay tender.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smooth, moist texture.
Whole eggs and egg yolks
Bind the mixture and set when heated, giving it structure and a firm body.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess, keeping the filling smooth and tender.

The step that matters

Testing the moisture with a poached ball. If the mixture is too wet, it will not set firmly when cooked and may split or crumble. A small poached test ball shows whether the binding is right before the whole batch is cooked, so adjustments can be made in time.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, meat, pepper, butter, egg, sauce, mushroom):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, meat, pepper, butter, egg, sauce, mushroom. 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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