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 ↓
Chicken Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the chicken and pork
Boil the chicken pieces in water for about 20 minutes until partially cooked.
Remove the chicken pieces from the boiling water.
Fry the salt pork slices in a pan until browned.
Assemble the pie
Place the fried pork in the bottom of a pie dish.
Arrange the chicken pieces on top of the pork.
Add 1 cup of water to the pie dish.
Add 2 ounces of butter to the pie dish.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the pie dish.
Add pepper to taste to the pie dish.
Cover the pie with a light biscuit-like crust.
Bake and make the gravy
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is well-risen and brown.
Cover the pie with paper to prevent burning while baking through.
Remove excess fat from the boiling water.
Thicken the liquid with flour.
Season the liquid to taste.
Stir in 1 cup of heavy cream.
Pour the gravy through the hole in the crust once the pie is done.
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.
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Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,417 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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, which partially cooks first and finishes in the oven.
- Salt pork
- Browned fat adds savory flavor and richness to the base of the pie.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the cooking liquid, improving flavor and mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy by swelling with heat.
- Heavy cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the gravy.
The step that matters
Thicken the liquid with flour. Flour must be cooked in the hot liquid to thicken it smoothly; added raw or unevenly it forms lumps and leaves a starchy taste.
“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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