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Tarvence Chicken Custard

A custard made with chicken stock, cream, Tarvence, and egg yolks, seasoned with pepper, sea salt, and celery salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tarvence Chicken Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald together the chicken stock and cream in a saucepan.

  2. Slowly add the Tarvence, stirring until smooth.

  3. Beat the egg yolks until creamy.

  4. Pour the hot mixture over the beaten egg yolks.

  5. Return to the heat and cook until thickened.

Season and serve

  1. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and celery salt.

  2. Serve hot or 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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Cream + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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
Thicken the custard as they set when gently heated, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Tarvence
Thickens the liquid by swelling in heat, giving the custard its body.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel and softens the flavour.

The step that matters

Return to the heat and cook until thickened. Egg yolks set at moderate heat and can scramble if overheated, leaving lumps. Cook gently and stir constantly until the custard just coats a spoon.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, cream, 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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