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Dessert

Chicken Custard

A chilled custard made with cream, chicken stock, egg yolks, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,241 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Chicken Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the cream and chicken stock in a double boiler until hot.

  2. Whisk in the beaten egg yolks.

  3. Cook until the mixture thickens to a soft custard consistency.

  4. Season with salt.

Serve

  1. Pour into cups.

  2. Serve cold.

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. Cream + chickentop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,241 recipes

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

  2. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Egg yolks
Their proteins set as they heat, thickening the liquid into a custard.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the custard a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Chicken stock
Supplies the liquid base and the savory chicken flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the custard gently until it thickens. Egg yolk proteins set as the mixture heats and thicken it smoothly. If the heat is too high, the proteins tighten too fast and curdle, leaving a grainy texture.

“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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