Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Chicken and Turkey Patties
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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Assemble the filling
In a pie dish, layer the minced chicken or turkey.
If using, pour gravy over the meat; if not, line the dish with pie crust.
In a bowl, mix butter and flour until combined, then dot over the meat.
Pour water into the dish until nearly full.
Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and ground mace if desired.
Bake
Cover with a pie crust and bake until the crust is golden brown.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,257 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
-
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Cold chicken or turkey
- Forms the main body of the filling and supplies the savory meat flavour.
- Gravy
- Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the meat so it does not dry out in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness and helps brown the crust.
- Flour
- Mixed with butter to thicken the juices into a looser sauce within the pie.
The step that matters
Covering and baking until golden. The pie crust must be sealed over the filling and baked until golden brown; browning comes from the crust's sugars and fats reacting with heat, and the filling needs enough time in the oven to heat through.
Swap the mace
The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, flour, pepper):
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- Turmericfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, pepper. 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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