Name: Chicken Pie
Ingredients: chickens, cut into pieces; water, enough to cover the chicken; flour; coarse sea salt; black pepper; salt pork or butter; pastry for the crust

Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken

Clean and cut the chickens into pieces.
Boil the chicken in water just to cover until nearly cooked, skimming the water carefully.

Assemble the pie

Line a deep dish with a thick pastry made like biscuit dough.
Layer the chicken pieces in the dish, placing those with bones from the center to the edge.
Add the hearts and livers, sprinkling each layer with flour, salt, and pepper.
Top each layer with a thin slice of salt pork or a small piece of butter, adding more seasoning on the top layer.
Pour in enough of the boiling liquid to fill the dish without overflowing.
Roll out the upper crust thicker than for fruit pies, make a steam vent, and place it over the dish.
Wet the edge of the under crust with water to seal it tightly.

Bake

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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.

Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,417 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Chicken + flourtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,559 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Chicken and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,559 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

Flour: Sprinkled between layers, it thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy-like filling.
Salt pork or butter: Melts over the chicken, adding moisture and richness to the filling.
Pastry for the crust: Forms a thick, sealed shell that holds the filling and its liquid during baking.