Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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
Season the chicken quarters with pepper, salt, mace, and sweet marjoram.
Place the chicken in a dish, close together.
Dredge the chicken with flour and add butter pieces.
Pour in enough hot water or veal stock to fill the dish.
Line and cover
Line the sides and rim of the dish with paste crust.
Cover the chicken with the crust and cut a hole in the top.
Bake
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.
If the chicken is not very young, boil it for 30 minutes with strips of pork before baking.
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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Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,609 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,265 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mace + marjoramtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together767 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + vealtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,243 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).
Flour and butter 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 body, meat and savoury flavour of the pie.
- Flour
- Coats the chicken and thickens the cooking liquid into a sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and keeps the meat moist.
- Hot water or veal stock
- Forms the cooking liquid that becomes the sauce and keeps the chicken moist.
- Paste crust
- Lines and covers the dish, enclosing the chicken and holding in steam while baking.
The step that matters
Cut a hole in the top crust. The opening lets steam escape while baking. Without it, pressure builds under the sealed crust, which can crack or lift and make the sauce spill or boil unevenly.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, marjoram, flour, butter, veal):
- Thymefits better
- Sagefits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, marjoram, flour, butter, veal. 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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