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Minced Chicken and Eggs

A casserole of minced chicken and eggs baked with a breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Minced Chicken and Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Cut the chicken into neat squares.

  2. Place the bones, fat, and skin in a saucepan, cover with water, and simmer for at least 1 hour.

  3. Strain the broth.

  4. Let the broth sit for a few minutes to allow the fat to rise.

  5. Skim off the fat.

  6. Return the broth to the saucepan.

Make the sauce and filling

  1. When the broth is nearly boiling, add the milk thickened with flour and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Once thickened, add the chicken and heat through without boiling.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a deep pie dish and cover the bottom with crumbled stuffing, moistened with a little gravy.

  2. Pour the chicken mixture into the dish.

  3. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.

  4. Carefully place the eggs over the surface.

  5. Sprinkle more breadcrumbs over the eggs.

  6. Add butter, pepper, and salt on top.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Set into a custard-like layer that holds the topping together when baked.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that thickens with flour into a smooth sauce.
Flour or cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a sauce that coats the chicken.
Breadcrumbs
Add a crisp, golden topping as they brown in the oven.
Stuffing
Adds savoury flavour and moisture to the base layer of the dish.

The step that matters

Heat through without boiling. Once the milk and flour mixture is thickened, boiling can cause it to separate or turn grainy, and the chicken can toughen. Gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, parsley, pepper, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, parsley, pepper, egg. 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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