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 Pot 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 dough
In a large bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Cut in butter and lard until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add milk or water gradually until the dough is stiff like pie crust.
Roll out the dough thinly and bake lightly in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).
Prepare the filling
Boil the chicken until tender, then remove and chop into pieces.
Make a gravy with the chicken broth.
Assemble and serve
Cut the baked crust into pieces and pour the gravy and chicken over it.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,389 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 main structure of the dough once mixed with liquid.
- Butter
- Cut into the flour to create tenderness and flakiness in the crust.
- Lard
- Cut into the flour to create tenderness and flakiness in the crust.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that helps the crust rise and lighten during baking.
- Chicken broth
- Provides the liquid and flavor base for the gravy.
The step that matters
Cut in butter and lard until coarse crumbs. Fat pieces left as small distinct bits coat flour and melt during baking, creating flaky layers. If the fat is overworked into the flour, the crust becomes tough and dense rather than tender.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, chicken):
- Almondfits better
- Peanutfits better
- Cashew nutfits better
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, chicken. 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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