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Fondu of Chicken

A baked dish of minced cold chicken, bread crumbs, milk, butter and eggs, cooked in a greased dish until light brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fondu of Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the boiling milk.

  2. Stir in the butter and beat until light.

  3. Let the mixture cool while you mince the meat and beat the eggs.

  4. Stir in the minced meat when the bread and milk mixture is nearly cold.

Mix and bake

  1. Season with pepper and salt, then add the beaten eggs and mix well.

  2. Pour the mixture into a well-greased baking dish.

  3. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) until the fondue is a light delicate brown.

  4. Serve immediately in the same dish.

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

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

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

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

  3. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the hot milk to form a soft, moist body for the fondue.
Milk
Hydrates the bread crumbs and keeps the bake moist and tender.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more delicate crumb.
Cold chicken, veal, or turkey
Supplies the main meaty flavor and substance of the dish.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the meat and eggs. If the bread and milk mixture is still very hot, the beaten eggs may scramble or cook unevenly instead of setting smoothly when baked.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, bread, milk, butter, ham, egg, 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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