Name: Chicken Pie
Ingredients: 3 spring chickens; 1 cup milk or cream; 1 piece celery, chopped; ½ cup butter; ¼ teaspoon red pepper; ½ teaspoon grated onion; ¼ pound pickled pork, diced; 1 teaspoon minced parsley; 2 tablespoons flour

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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

Unjoint the chickens as if preparing to fry them.
Boil the chicken in 1½ pints of water with the pickled pork, red pepper, onion, and celery until tender.

Make the filling

Stir in the flour, butter, and milk or cream until well combined.
Add the minced parsley and pour the mixture into partially cooked pastry.

Bake

Bake for 10 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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.

Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,417 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Spring chickens: Provide the main body of the filling, becoming tender through long simmering.
Flour: Thickens the cooking liquid and milk into a creamy, sliceable filling.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the filling.
Milk or cream: Adds moisture and creaminess, blending with the flour to form a rich sauce.
Pickled pork: Adds salty, savory flavor that seasons the chicken and filling.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, milk, butter, pepper, onion, pork, parsley):

Thymefits better
Garlicfits better
Marjoramfits about as well
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, milk, butter, pepper, onion, pork, parsley. 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.