Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Chicken Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Prepare the chickens for stewing, season, and cook until tender.
Pour off the liquid and let it cool to remove all bones and skin.
Assemble and bake
Place the meat in a baking dish and add mushrooms, peas, potatoes, and onions.
Pour the slightly thickened liquid over the mixture.
Cover with a crust made of rich biscuit dough.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,172 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,756 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
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Onion + biscuittop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together428 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chickens
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
- Rich biscuit dough
- Forms the crust that bakes into a golden, flaky top layer.
- Cooking liquid
- Adds moisture and savory flavour, thickened to coat the filling.
- Potatoes
- Add starchy bulk that holds its shape and soaks up the savoury liquid.
The step that matters
Pour off the liquid and let it cool before removing bones and skin. Letting the chicken cool firms the meat and fat so bones and skin can be separated cleanly. Handling it hot makes the meat fall apart and tears it, and the cooled broth can then be skimmed of fat before thickening.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, mushroom, potato, onion, biscuit):
- Sesamefits better
- Beansfits better
- Peanutfits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mushroom, potato, onion, biscuit. 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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