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Chicken Pot-pie

A savory pie with chicken, ham, force-meat, eggs, and herbs baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken Pot-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 chicken and gravy

  1. Skin and cut the chicken into joints.

  2. Place the neck, legs, and back bones in a stew pan with the onion, savory herbs, and mace.

  3. Add enough water to cover and let it stew for 1 hour.

  4. Strain the liquid to use as gravy.

Assemble the pie

  1. In a pie dish, layer the chicken, then ham, then force-meat and hard-boiled egg rings.

  2. Season each layer with mace, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  3. Pour in about 1/2 pint of water.

  4. Border the edge of the dish with puff pastry, cover with a lid, and decorate the top.

  5. Brush the top with egg yolk for glazing.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 1.5 hours.

  2. Once baked, pour the reserved gravy into the pie through the top.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  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. Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main meat and, with the bones, flavour for the stewed gravy.
Force-meat
Adds a seasoned, firm layer that holds its shape and flavour within the pie.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add set, firm texture and a mild richness to the filling layers.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp crust that browns in the oven.
Egg yolk
Brushed on top, it promotes even browning and a glossy finish on the crust.

The step that matters

Brush the top with egg yolk for glazing. Egg yolk contains proteins and fats that brown and shine when baked, so an even, thin coat gives a glossy golden crust rather than a patchy one.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, ham, meat, egg, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, ham, meat, egg, nutmeg, pepper. 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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