Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Aunt Abby's Chicken Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Join the chickens and stew them in barely enough water to cover for 30 minutes.
Remove the chickens from the broth and place them in a deep dish.
Assemble
Layer with slices of sweet salt pork and optional butter crackers.
Season the broth well and pour it over the chicken.
For a heartier dish, add a layer of cooked potatoes at the bottom of the dish.
Top and finish
Prepare a pie crust and place a rim around the edge of the dish, wetting it slightly to help it stick.
Decorate the top with pastry.
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.
-
Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,417 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,756 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
-
Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chickens
- Provide the main meat, and stewing them flavours the broth that moistens the pie.
- Sweet salt pork
- Adds fat and savoury, salty flavour to the chicken layers.
- Prepared pie crust
- Forms the top pastry that seals the dish and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Wetting the pie crust rim. A lightly moistened edge lets the pastry bond to the dish's rim, so the crust stays attached as it cooks. Dry edges can pull apart and let the filling leak or the crust lift.
“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.
More chicken pie recipes
You might also like
Chicken Broth257 recipes
Potato Croquettes255 recipes
Chicken Soup156 recipes
Pork Cake107 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.