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Chicken and Sweetbread Pie

A savory pie filled with chicken, sweetbread, mushrooms, and gravy, topped with a crust and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Chicken and Sweetbread Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Assemble the pie

  1. Line a deep pie dish with the pie crust and spread a layer of forcemeat on the bottom.

  2. Add alternate layers of chicken and sweetbread, seasoning each layer with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper. Sprinkle chopped mushrooms or truffles over each layer.

  3. When the dish is nearly full, place slices of hard-boiled egg on top and pour a little gravy over the meat.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the dish with the remaining pie crust, brush it with beaten egg, and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1.5 hours.

  2. Just before serving, make a hole in the top and pour in some additional gravy.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Mushroom + meattop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,423 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful during the long baking.
Sweetbread
Adds a rich, delicate texture and savoury depth to the filling.
Forcemeat
Forms a seasoned base layer that keeps the filling moist and supports the meat.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and a firm texture to the filling layer beneath the crust.
Mushrooms or truffles
Contribute earthy aroma and savoury flavour to the layered filling.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the meat as the pie bakes.

The step that matters

Pouring gravy into the pie before baking. Gravy poured over the meat before the crust goes on helps keep the filling moist during the long bake, so the meat does not dry out while the crust sets and browns.

“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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