Skip to main content
Main

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
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

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

  3. Season with chopped mushrooms, shallots, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  4. Add a little white sauce, stock, or water.

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

  6. Add the yolks of hard-boiled eggs.

  7. Cover the top with more sauce.

Top and bake

  1. Cover with puff pastry, and brush with beaten egg.

  2. Decorate the top and 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 pie, becoming tender and savory as it cooks through.
Veal
Adds tender meat texture and savory depth to the layered filling.
Ham
Contributes salty, savory flavor that seasons the filling.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a creamy texture to the filling.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp crust that browns in the oven.
White sauce
Keeps the filling moist and binds the layers together as it cooks.

The step that matters

Covering with sauce and pastry. Enough liquid must surround the meat so it cooks through and stays moist, while the pastry must seal the top so steam stays inside. A loose or dry filling can leave the meat tough.

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.

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipesChicken PanadaChicken Panada75 recipes