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Creams of Chicken

A steamed custard made from cooked chicken, ham, cream, white sauce, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Creams of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mince and pound the chicken and ham very finely.

  2. Add the white sauce and beaten eggs, then mix together.

  3. Whip the cream lightly and stir it into the mixture.

  4. Season with mace, salt, and pepper.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into greased dariole moulds, filling them no more than two-thirds full.

  2. Smooth over the top, cover with greased paper, and steam gently for 30 minutes.

  3. Turn out onto a hot dish.

  4. Pour over a pint of good white sauce, garnish with peas or small tomatoes, and 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. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable custard when steamed.
Cream
Adds richness and a light, tender texture to the custard.
White sauce
Supplies moisture and body so the mixture stays soft and smooth.
Cooked chicken
Forms the main body and savoury flavour of the custard.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury depth to the chicken base.

The step that matters

Filling the dariole moulds. Egg custards puff as they steam and then settle. Filling the moulds no more than two-thirds full leaves room for expansion, so the custard does not overflow or split and turn out cleanly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, cream, sauce, 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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