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Chicken Pie with Oysters

A savory pie filled with shredded chicken, oysters, and a creamy broth, baked in a double crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Pie with Oysters

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the chicken in water until cooked, then remove and shred the meat.

  2. In a pan, melt butter and sauté onion and carrots until soft.

  3. Add flour, salt, and pepper, stirring for 1 minute.

  4. Pour in chicken broth and bring to a boil, then add shredded chicken and oysters.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and cover with another crust.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 of the filling as cooked, shredded meat.
Oysters
Add a briny, savory flavor that stands out in the filling.
Chicken broth
Supplies liquid that carries the flavor and moistens the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor when used to cook the onion and carrots.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a sauce that holds the filling together.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the filling as they soften.

The step that matters

Thickening the broth with flour. Flour must be cooked briefly in the fat before liquid is added, so it dissolves smoothly and thickens rather than leaving lumps. Stirring as the broth comes to a boil keeps the sauce even.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, oyster, onion, butter, pepper, flour):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, oyster, onion, butter, pepper, flour. 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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