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Chicken Pie a LA Reine

A pastry-wrapped chicken and salt pork pie baked with gravy and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Chicken Pie a LA Reine

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Cut the chicken into small joints and the pork into neat scallops.

  2. Stew the chicken and pork gently in 1½ pints of water until nearly cooked.

Assemble

  1. Line the edge of a pudding dish with pastry.

  2. Layer the chicken, pork, and seasonings in the dish.

  3. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the layers.

  4. Fill the dish with the gravy, cover, and ornament the top.

Bake

  1. Wash the top with milk and bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C) for 40 minutes.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pork + thymetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

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

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 becomes tender as it stews in the water.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the filling as it cooks.
Milk
Brushed on the top crust to promote even browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Stew the chicken and pork until nearly cooked. Stewing gently keeps the meat tender and juicy. Because the pie bakes further, stopping at nearly cooked prevents the meat from drying out and becoming tough.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pork, celery, thyme, parsley, milk):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Fennelfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pork, celery, thyme, parsley, milk. 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.

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