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Chicken Pie

A baked dish of browned chicken, onions, herbs, cream, and eggs in a flour-based crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Heat the lard in a deep oven‑safe dish and brown the chicken pieces.

  3. Add the chopped onion, parsley, thyme, sage, and black pepper to taste.

  4. Pour in the boiling water, stir well, and let the mixture simmer until the chicken is cooked.

  5. In a bowl, mix the cream, butter, egg yolks, grated nutmeg, and spices.

Make the crust and assemble

  1. Prepare a paste by mixing the flour with the weight of four eggs in butter and the lard.

  2. Line a deep dish with the paste, then layer the chicken and thin bacon slices.

  3. Sprinkle the dish with large crumbs, pepper, and a quarter‑pound of butter.

  4. Fill the dish with cold water and add the yolks of four or six hard‑boiled eggs.

  5. Dredge the top with flour and cover with the top crust.

Bake

  1. Bake gradually for about two hours.

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender as it simmers in the seasoned liquid.
Flour
Forms the paste and crust structure that holds the pie together while it bakes.
Lard
Adds fat for a short, tender crust and helps brown the chicken at the start.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the cream mixture set into a smooth, thickened filling.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the crust and filling, giving richness and tenderness.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture to the filling, making it smooth and creamy.

The step that matters

Bake gradually for about two hours. A long, gentle bake lets the chicken and filling cook through and the crust set without burning. Too much heat can dry the meat and scorch the pastry before the centre is done.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, parsley, thyme, sage, pepper, cream, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, parsley, thyme, sage, pepper, cream, butter. 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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