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Chicken Pie with Oysters

A baked chicken pie filled with oysters, seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter, served with a homemade gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 Pie with Oysters

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the chicken until tender, then drain and reserve the broth.

  2. Boil the oysters in their liquor and skim off any impurities.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line the sides of a dish with a rich crust.

  2. Layer the chicken and oysters in the dish, seasoning each layer with salt, pepper, and bits of butter.

  3. Add the oyster liquor and some chicken broth until the liquid is even with the top layer.

  4. Cover loosely with a crust, making a small opening in the center for steam to escape.

  5. If the liquid cooks away, add chicken gravy or hot water.

  6. Bake for 40 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

Make the gravy and serve

  1. For gravy, mix 2 tablespoons flour with 2 tablespoons butter until smooth, then add to the reserved chicken broth.

  2. Cook until the flour taste is gone, season with salt, and serve.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + oystertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together972 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

Chicken
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long boiling.
Oysters
Supply the briny, savory flavor that defines the filling.
Flour
Thickens the reserved broth into a smooth gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the filling and gravy.

The step that matters

Cooking the gravy flour. Flour must be cooked after it is blended with butter and added to the broth; otherwise the gravy keeps a raw, pasty flour taste and may stay lumpy or thin.

“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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