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Chicken or Veal Creams

A savory custard made from minced chicken or veal, almonds, onion juice, spices, egg whites, and whipped cream, baked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Chicken or Veal Creams

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 mixture

  1. Pound the minced chicken or veal to a paste.

  2. Mix in the chopped almonds, onion juice, salt, and white pepper.

  3. Gradually add the unbeaten egg whites and stir carefully.

  4. Fold in the whipped cream gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill timbale molds and bake in a pan of boiling water at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  2. Turn out onto a platter and serve with a rich white sauce made from half milk and half stock.

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

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

  2. Almond + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Chicken + almondtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together838 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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

Chicken or veal
Provides the main protein that sets into a firm, sliceable custard structure.
Egg whites
Unbeaten whites coagulate on heating, binding the mixture and giving it a light set.
Cream
Whipped cream adds moisture and a tender, airy texture to the set mixture.
Almonds
Chopped almonds add body and a subtle nutty flavour and texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped cream and egg whites. Overmixing knocks air out of the whipped cream and deflates the mixture, producing a dense rather than light, tender cream. Gentle folding keeps the air bubbles that give the bake its texture.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, almond, onion, egg, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, almond, onion, egg, cream. 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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