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Chicken Pudding

A baked dish of chicken mixed with a batter of eggs, milk, butter, flour, and baking powder, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chicken Pudding

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.

Cook the chicken

  1. Cut the chickens into good-sized pieces and place them in a saucepan with enough water to cover them.

  2. Boil until tender.

  3. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

  4. Remove the chicken from the broth.

  5. Take out all the large bones.

Make the pudding

  1. Place the chicken meat in a well-buttered pudding dish.

  2. Season again if necessary.

  3. Add a few bits of butter.

  4. Beat the eggs. Mix the eggs with milk, melted butter, salt, and baking powder.

  5. Add enough sifted flour to create a batter similar to griddle-cakes.

  6. Pour the batter over the chicken in the pudding dish.

  7. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Use the remaining broth for the gravy.

  2. Add flour stirred into melted butter to the broth.

  3. Let it boil.

  4. Add more water if needed.

  5. Serve the gravy hot in a gravy boat alongside the pudding.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding when baked.
Flour
Provides the body of the batter and thickens the gravy.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the batter, helping it bake tender.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the batter rises and lightens.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and keeps the dish from sticking when greased.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs and mix the batter evenly. Eggs and milk must be fully combined with the flour so the batter bakes into an even, tender pudding rather than a lumpy or dense one. Baking powder should be mixed in well so it lifts the batter uniformly as it bakes.

“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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