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Chicken Cream

A steamed custard of chicken, cream, egg, butter, and whipped egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pound the chicken in a mortar.

  2. Add the whole egg and seasonings, then rub through a sieve.

  3. Stir in half of the whipped egg white and the whipped cream.

Cook and serve

  1. Put the mixture into buttered dariole molds.

  2. Steam gently for 15 minutes.

  3. Serve with a nice white sauce.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Chicken + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Raw chicken
Forms the main body of the custard once pounded and sieved.
Egg
Sets during gentle steaming, giving the custard its firm, sliceable structure.
Whipped egg white
Adds air to lighten the mixture and a softer, more delicate texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the custard tender rather than dry.
Butter
Greases the molds so the custards release cleanly after cooking.

The step that matters

Steam gently for 15 minutes. High heat or boiling water can make egg-based custards bubble and turn rubbery or porous. Gentle steam heats the mixture slowly so the egg proteins set evenly into a smooth, tender texture.

“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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