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Chicken Pudding

A baked dish of chicken in a batter of eggs, milk, flour, and butter, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chicken Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Place the chicken pieces in a saucepan and cover with water.

  2. Boil until tender.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

  5. Remove the chicken from the broth.

  6. Take out the large bones.

  7. Place the chicken meat in a well-buttered pudding dish.

  8. Season again if needed.

  9. Add a few bits of butter.

Make the batter and bake

  1. Beat the eggs.

  2. Mix the eggs with milk, melted butter, salt, and baking powder.

  3. Add enough sifted flour to create a batter similar to griddle-cakes.

  4. Pour the batter over the chicken in the dish.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Use the remaining broth for the gravy.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of flour mixed with ⅓ cup melted butter to the broth.

  3. Let it boil.

  4. Add more water if necessary.

  5. Serve the pudding hot with the gravy.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and help the pudding set as it bakes.
Flour
Gives the batter body so it holds together rather than running off the chicken.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and turn light.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the batter, keeping the pudding tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavour in both the pudding and the gravy.

The step that matters

Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour. The egg batter sets through gentle heat. Too hot and the outside browns or dries before the centre sets; too cool and the pudding stays wet and does not firm up.

“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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