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Chicken Custard

A baked custard made with shredded chicken, bread crumbs, eggs, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Custard

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs and egg yolks until well combined.

  3. Add the shredded chicken, coarse sea salt, celery salt, and milk to the mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture into a cup or small baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the cup in a pan of hot water and bake until set, about 30-40 minutes.

  2. Serve hot.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + chickentop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, smooth custard when heated.
Milk
Adds moisture and creates a soft, tender custard texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the custard body and a soft structure.
Cooked chicken
Provides the main protein and savory flavor.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath. Setting the cup in a pan of hot water moderates the oven heat around the custard. Egg proteins set gently and evenly, which prevents curdling, cracks, and a rubbery texture. Bake only until just set.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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