Name: Chicken Turnovers
Ingredients: puff pastry or any good pastry; cooked chicken, chopped fine; seasoning (to taste); finely minced ham (optional); gravy or cream (for moisture)

Why it works: Chicken and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Chicken Turnovers

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

puff pastry or any good pastry
cooked chicken, chopped fine
seasoning (to taste)
finely minced ham (optional)
gravy or cream (for moisture)

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Roll out the pastry and cut it into large rounds.
Mix the chopped chicken with seasoning and minced ham, if using.
Moisten the mixture with gravy or cream.
Place a tablespoon of the mixture on one half of each pastry round.
Fold the other half over and press the edges together to seal.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) or fry in hot fat until golden.

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.

Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,497 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,370 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Chicken + creamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,241 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).