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 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.
Cook the chicken
Boil the chickens until tender.
Layer chicken in a pan, adding butter, pepper, and salt between layers.
Pour in the chicken broth.
Assemble and bake
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, shortening, milk, and salt to make the crust.
Cover the pie with the crust and place a little butter on top.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,389 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Chickens
- Provides the main filling, becoming tender and savory after boiling.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the crust as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the crust so it rises and becomes lighter.
- Shortening
- Adds fat that keeps the crust tender and flaky rather than tough.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to the crust and its sugars help it brown in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the layers and the top of the pie.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown. Browning comes from heat acting on the milk sugars and proteins in the crust. Pulling the pie too early leaves the crust pale and doughy, while leaving it too long can dry it out.
“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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