Skip to main content
Main

Chicken Pudding

A savory pudding made with boiled chicken, eggs, milk, and flour, baked and served with a butter‑flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Place the chicken pieces in a saucepan and cover with water.

  2. Boil until tender.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Simmer for 10–15 minutes.

  5. Remove the chicken from the broth and take out the large bones.

Make the batter and assemble

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

  2. Season again if needed.

  3. Add a few bits of butter.

  4. Beat the eggs in a bowl. Mix the beaten 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. Combine the remaining broth with flour and melted butter in a saucepan.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Add more water if necessary.

  4. 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 set the pudding into a firm, sliceable custard-like texture.
Flour
Forms the batter's body and thickens the gravy.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the pudding rises and turns light.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the batter and helps it brown gently.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and richness, and keeps the dish from sticking and the gravy smooth.

The step that matters

Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C). Eggs set as they heat, so the pudding can turn watery or curdled if the oven runs too hot. A steady moderate oven lets the batter cook through and rise evenly.

“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.

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipesChicken PanadaChicken Panada75 recipes