Name: Chicken and Ham Patties
Ingredients: 1 cold chicken, breast or white fleshy parts; ½ quantity of lean ham or tongue; good gravy (from bones or trimmings); 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; salt and pepper to taste

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

1 cold chicken, breast or white fleshy parts
½ quantity of lean ham or tongue
good gravy (from bones or trimmings)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare the filling

Skin and finely mince the chicken and ham or tongue.
In a small saucepan, combine the gravy with butter and flour to thicken.
Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and bake

Fill the prepared pastry shells with the mixture.
Cover with pastry tops and bake until golden.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,497 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

Chicken: Forms the main body of the filling, giving it a tender, meaty texture.
Ham or tongue: Adds savoury, salty flavour and a firmer bite to the filling.
Gravy: Supplies moisture and flavour that binds the minced meat together.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, helping the filling taste rounded and smooth.
Flour: Thickens the gravy so the filling holds its shape rather than running out.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy with butter and flour. Flour must be cooked in the butter and stirred into the gravy until smooth and thickened. If it is not cooked and stirred well, the filling can taste raw and turn lumpy, and it may run out of the pastry when baked.

“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.

Chicken Broth257 recipes

Chicken Soup156 recipes

Creamed Chicken89 recipes

Chicken Panada75 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Chicken and Ham Patties