Name: Chicken Pie
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 quart all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon salt; 3 tablespoons shortening (2 tablespoons lard, 1 tablespoon butter); 1 teaspoon baking soda; Sour milk (enough to make a dough); Butter (for layering); Gravy from cooked chicken

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Ingredients

1 whole chicken
Salt and pepper to taste
1 quart all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons shortening (2 tablespoons lard, 1 tablespoon butter)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Sour milk (enough to make a dough)
Butter (for layering)
Gravy from cooked chicken

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the chicken

Prepare the chicken, season with salt and pepper, and boil until tender.
Remove the bones.

Make the dough

In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, shortening, and baking soda.
Add sour milk gradually to form a dough.
Roll out the dough.

Assemble and bake

Line a pan with the rolled dough, covering the bottom and sides.
Layer the chicken in the pan, seasoning with salt, pepper, and butter, and add thin squares of dough.
Repeat layering until the pan is full.
Pour in the chicken gravy, reserving some for later.
Cover with a top crust.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,389 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

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

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

All-purpose flour: Forms the structure of the dough that holds the pie together.
Shortening: Adds fat that makes the dough tender and flaky.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk to help the dough rise and lighten.
Sour milk: Its acidity activates the baking soda and moistens the dough.
Chicken: Provides the main filling, becoming tender after boiling.

“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.