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Chicken and Oyster Pie

A savory pie filled with chicken, oysters, ham, and a white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken and Oyster 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 filling

  1. Scald the oysters in their own juice.

  2. Make the white sauce using the strained oyster juice and boiling water as needed.

  3. Add the grated onion and seasonings to the sauce.

Build the pie

  1. Line a deep pie dish with a thin layer of puff paste.

  2. Build up the edges of the pie dish with 2 or 3 extra layers of puff paste.

  3. Fill the dish with chicken, oysters, and ham.

  4. Pour the sauce over the filling.

  5. Cover the filling with a layer of paste rolled to ½ inch thick.

  6. Moisten the edges of the top crust and trim them neatly.

  7. Cut an 'X' in the center of the crust.

  8. Bake a small piece of crust on a separate tin in a fancy shape to cover the hole in the pie.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the pie for about 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C), ensuring it browns evenly.

  2. Brush the top with a mixture of egg yolk and milk.

  3. Return the pie to the oven for 2-3 minutes until browned.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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. Oyster + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together360 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

Oysters
Provide the main briny flavor of the filling, with their juice flavoring the sauce.
White sauce
Binds the chicken, oysters and ham into a moist, creamy filling.
Cold boiled chicken
Forms the bulk of the filling and adds savory meaty substance.
Puff paste
Forms the flaky, layered crust that rises and browns in the oven.
Egg yolk (in the method)
Enriches the glaze, promoting a glossy, deep golden browning on the crust.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Baking the pie at 400°F. Oven heat must be high enough to set the sauce and puff the layered paste while the crust browns evenly. Too low a heat leaves the crust pale and soggy, while too much time can dry out the chicken.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, sauce, oyster, onion, ham, sherry, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, sauce, oyster, onion, ham, sherry, 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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