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Chicken Pie

A savory pie of chicken, ham, forcemeat balls, hard‑boiled eggs, seasoned with pepper, mace, nutmeg, and Cayenne, served with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken 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 chicken

  1. Season the chicken pieces with white pepper, coarse sea salt, mace, nutmeg, and Cayenne.

  2. Layer the chicken, ham, forcemeat balls, and hard-boiled eggs in a baking dish.

  3. Add a little water if not using a raised crust.

Make the gravy

  1. Prepare gravy using veal knuckle or mutton shank bones, seasoned with herbs and onion.

  2. If using a raised crust, strain the gravy and allow it to cool until it sets like jelly.

  3. For clear jelly, boil the strained gravy with the whites of two eggs and sieve it.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until cooked through.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken (in the method)
Provides the main meat, which cooks through during baking to form the body of the pie.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm, sliceable texture and richness to the filling.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty depth and a meaty flavour to the filling.
Forcemeat balls
Add a tender, seasoned meaty texture that contrasts with the chicken.
Gravy from veal knuckle or mutton shank bones
Adds moisture and body, and sets to a jelly when chilled for a raised crust.

The step that matters

Straining and cooling the gravy until it sets. Gravy made from bones contains natural gelatin that sets as it cools. If it is not strained clear and chilled properly, it will not form the firm jelly the raised crust needs.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white pepper, mace, nutmeg, pepper, ham, egg, veal):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white pepper, mace, nutmeg, pepper, ham, egg, veal. 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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