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Chicken and Oyster Pie

A pie of stewed chicken and oysters with a thickened sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chicken and Oyster Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Stew the chicken until tender.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones.

  3. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and butter.

Assemble the pie

  1. Line a pie dish with a rich crust.

  2. Pour the hot chicken into the pie dish.

  3. Sprinkle a little flour over the chicken.

  4. Cover the chicken with another crust, cutting a hole in the center.

Make the oyster liquor and finish

  1. Take the liquor from the can of oysters.

  2. Thicken the liquor with flour.

  3. Season the liquor with salt, pepper, and butter.

  4. Bring the oyster liquor to a boil.

  5. Pour the boiled liquor over the chicken.

  6. About 15 minutes before the pie is done, lift the top crust.

  7. Add the oysters.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

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

  4. Chicken + oystertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together972 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

Chicken
Provides the main body and meaty filling of the pie.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the chicken and liquor.
Flour
Thickens the oyster liquor so it binds into a spoonable sauce.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Thickening the oyster liquor. Flour must be fully mixed in and brought to a boil so starch swells and thickens the liquor; otherwise it stays thin or tastes raw and floury.

“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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