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Chicken Patties

Chicken patties made with minced chicken, ham, butter, cream, stock, spices, and optional mushrooms, baked with pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Chicken Patties

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Patties

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.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine the minced chicken, ham, butter, cream, white stock, salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon rind, lemon juice, and mushrooms.

  2. Stir gently for 10 minutes, ensuring the mixture does not burn.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line patty pans with pastry crust.

  2. Place crumpled paper or bread in each pan to support the top crust while baking.

  3. Fill each patty three-quarters full with the mixture and cover with the top crust.

  4. Seal the edges with egg white and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Cooked chicken
Provides the main body of the filling and a savoury, meaty flavour.
Lean ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that complements the chicken.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smoother, softer texture.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness, helping bind the minced filling together.
Egg white
Seals the edges of the pastry and helps it brown during baking.

The step that matters

Stir gently for 10 minutes. The minced mixture can scorch on the base of the pan if heat is too high or it is left unstirred, and vigorous stirring can make it tough. Gentle, steady stirring keeps the moisture in and prevents sticking.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, ham, egg, butter, flour, cream, pepper):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, egg, butter, flour, cream, 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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