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Chicken and Ham Pie

A savory pie filled with chicken, veal, ham, mushrooms, shallots, parsley, and egg yolks, topped with puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Chicken and Ham Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

Layer the filling

  1. Cover the bottom of a pie dish with thin slices of veal and ham, alternating them.

  2. Season with mushrooms, shallots, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  3. Add white sauce, stock, or water to the dish.

  4. Arrange the chicken pieces neatly on top and add more seasoning.

  5. Add the yolks of hard-boiled eggs.

  6. Spread a little more sauce over the top.

Cover and bake

  1. Cover with puff pastry, brush with beaten egg, and decorate the top.

  2. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  4. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the filling and, as it cooks, adds savoury flavour and moisture.
Veal
Lines the dish and adds tender meaty texture as it cooks through.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that seasons the layers of the pie.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a creamy texture to the filling.
White sauce
Adds moisture so the filling stays juicy rather than drying out in the oven.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky crust that rises and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Adding enough liquid before baking. The white sauce, stock, or water keeps the meat and filling moist during the long bake. Too little liquid can leave the chicken and veal dry and tough by the time the pastry is golden.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, veal, ham, mushroom, shallot, pepper, sauce):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, veal, ham, mushroom, shallot, pepper, sauce. 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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