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Dinner — Chicken Pie with Oysters

A pie containing chicken, oysters, potatoes, salsify, and dried Lima beans, served with lobster salad, currant jelly, orange pudding, and fruit cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,756 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓

Dinner — Chicken Pie with Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the chicken and oysters for the pie.

  2. Cook the potatoes and salsify until tender.

Assemble and bake

  1. Combine the chicken, oysters, and vegetables in a pie crust.

  2. Bake until the crust is golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with lobster salad, currant jelly, orange pudding, and fruit cake.

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. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  2. Potato + lima beanstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together62 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Potato + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together537 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Oyster + lobstertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together255 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + lima beanstop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together101 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main meaty body and substantial texture of the pie filling.
Oysters
Adds a briny, savory flavor that defines the character of the filling.
Potatoes
Adds starch and soft body to the filling as they cook until tender.
Salsify
Contributes a mild, earthy flavor and tender texture to the vegetable mixture.

The step that matters

Bake until the crust is golden brown. Golden browning comes from Maillard reactions and caramelization in the crust. A pale, underbaked crust stays soft and doughy, so the bake must run until the color develops.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, oyster, potato, lima beans, lobster, orange):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Grapefits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, oyster, potato, lima beans, lobster, orange. 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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