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Chicken Pot Pie

A savory pie with chicken, pastry crust, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Chicken Pot Pie

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Wash and dry the chicken pieces with a clean napkin.

  2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

  3. Line the sides of a pot with pastry.

  4. Layer the chicken pieces in the pot, adding a piece of butter rolled in flour between each layer.

  5. Pour in enough cold water to cover the chicken.

Cook

  1. Cover the pot with a pastry lid, leaving an opening in the center.

  2. Place the pot in front of the fire with a few coals underneath, turning it frequently to brown the crust evenly.

  3. If the gravy is not thick enough when done, mix a little flour with butter and add it.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the top crust on the sides of the dish.

  2. Lay the chicken in the center.

  3. Put the brown crust on top.

  4. Serve the gravy in a sauce boat.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

Chicken
Provides the main meat and, as it cooks, the savory juices that form the gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and helping the flour-based gravy turn smooth.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the liquid and fat.
Pastry
Forms the crust that encloses the chicken and browns on the outside.

The step that matters

Turning the pot while browning the crust. Heat from the coals is uneven, so the crust can scorch on one side or brown unevenly. Frequent turning spreads the heat so the pastry colors evenly before the chicken is overcooked.

“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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