Name: Chicken Pie
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken; 1 onion; 2 carrots; 2 celery stalks; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon black pepper; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 cup chicken broth; 1 pie crust

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a pot, boil the chicken with onion, carrots, celery, salt, and pepper until cooked.
Remove the chicken, shred the meat, and set aside.
Strain the broth and reserve.

Make the filling

In a pan, melt butter and add the shredded chicken.
Pour in the reserved broth and stir to combine.

Assemble and bake

Fill the pie crust with the chicken mixture.
Cover with another pie crust, seal edges, and cut slits on top.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole chicken: Provides the main meat, which is cooked and shredded for the filling.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the filling and helps carry flavor.
Chicken broth: Adds moisture to the filling so it stays saucy rather than dry.
Pie crust: Encloses the filling and browns in the oven for a golden top and base.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, carrot, celery, pepper, butter):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Tomatofits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, carrot, celery, pepper, butter. 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.