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Chicken Pie

A savory pie made with stewed chicken, pastry crust, and broth, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter 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 Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut the chickens up.

  2. Stew the chickens in a little water until tender.

  3. Remove the meat from the rib portions of the chicken.

Line and fill the dish

  1. Line a deep baking dish with pastry, 1/4 inch thick.

  2. Glaze the pastry with the egg white.

  3. Cut a small round from the center of the pastry to prevent soaking.

  4. Place the meat in the baking dish.

  5. Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, and flour.

  6. Add bits of butter to the chicken.

  7. Pour in 1 cup of chicken broth when the dish is nearly full.

Cover and bake

  1. Cover the dish with pastry.

  2. Make a small round opening in the center of the pastry.

  3. Decorate the opening with a braid of pastry.

  4. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

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. Flour + buttertop 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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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

Chickens
Provide the meat that is stewed until tender and forms the filling.
Flour
Sprinkled over the chicken to help thicken the juices into a sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and moisture through the filling.
Chicken broth
Adds liquid and savory flavor to the filling as it bakes.
Pastry
Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cut a small round from the center of the pastry. Cutting the vent before covering the dish lets steam escape, so the crust is less likely to become soggy from the broth.

“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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