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Chicken and Ham Patties

A baked patty filled with minced chicken, ham, and a savory gravy, topped with pastry lids.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 and Ham 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.

Make the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a roux.

  3. Add the veal gravy or jelly and stir until thickened.

  4. Mix in the minced chicken and ham, along with lemon peel, white pepper, salt, cayenne, and lemon juice until heated through.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the pre-baked patty shells with the hot mixture.

  2. Top with the pastry lids 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. Chicken + vealtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  3. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  5. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 breast
Forms the main body of the filling and gives it a tender, meaty texture.
Lean ham or tongue
Adds savoury meat flavour that complements the chicken.
Veal gravy or jelly
Supplies moisture and body, thickening the filling and binding the meats together.
Butter
Provides fat for the roux, carrying flavour and enriching the filling.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux that helps the filling hold together.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour to make a roux. Cooking the flour in melted butter until smooth prevents lumps and raw floury taste. Whisking it in evenly before adding liquid gives the gravy a smooth, stable thickness.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, ham, veal, butter, flour, lemon):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, veal, butter, flour, lemon. 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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