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English Chicken Pie

A savory pie filled with chicken joints, bread crumbs, and a gelatinous gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

English Chicken Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Arrange the chicken joints in a deep pudding dish, higher in the middle than at the sides.

  2. Scald the feet and scrape off the skin; reserve the pinions, necks, and feet.

  3. Mix bread-crumbs with pepper, salt, parsley, lemon peel, and the raw egg to form small balls.

  4. Place the balls in the pie and pour in the cold water.

  5. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 1 hour.

Bake and finish

  1. Cover with a crust, making a couple of cuts in the middle, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  2. If the pie browns too quickly, cover it with paper.

  3. Make gravy from the wings, feet, and necks, seasoning it well; dissolve the soaked gelatine in the gravy.

  4. Once the pie is done, pour the gravy into it through a funnel inserted in the top.

  5. Let the pie cool before cutting to allow the meat to be embedded in jelly.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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 its bones and feet, the body of the jelly.
Gelatine
Sets the poured gravy into a firm jelly once the pie cools.
Raw egg
Binds the bread-crumb mixture so it holds together in small balls.
Bread-crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind with the egg to form the savoury filling balls.

The step that matters

Pour the gravy in after baking, through a funnel. Gelatine must be dissolved fully in the warm gravy and poured into a pie that is done, so it can set as a jelly when cool. Pouring too early or letting the gravy cool and thicken can leave the filling loose or uneven.

“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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