Why it works: Chicken and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,991 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Chicken Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Mix the chicken broth, beaten egg yolks, and salt in a bowl.
Cook the mixture in a custard kettle over low heat until it thickens.
Serve
Serve in custard cups.
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.
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Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,991 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the broth as they set during gentle cooking, giving the custard its smooth, creamy body.
- Chicken broth
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries the flavor of the dish.
The step that matters
Cooking the mixture over low heat. Egg yolks set at moderate temperatures and can curdle or turn grainy if heated too fast. Gentle, low heat lets the custard thicken evenly and stay smooth.
“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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