Name: A Chicken Pie
Ingredients: 2 chickens, cut into pieces; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; a little beaten mace; ½ pound veal; ½ pound suet; crumbs of bread, as needed; 1 anchovy with its liquor, chopped; a little lemon peel, finely chopped; a very little thyme; 1 egg yolk; 2 sweetbreads, cut into 5 or 6 pieces; ½ ounce truffles, chopped; ½ ounce morels, chopped; 2 or 3 artichoke bottoms, cut into pieces; a few cockscombs, boiled and chopped; 1 palate, boiled tender and chopped; ½ pint water; good gravy, for filling

Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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.

Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,973 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Chicken + thymetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,173 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens: Provide the main meat that cooks down into the pie's filling.
Veal: Ground with suet to form a binding force-meat that holds its shape and texture.
Suet: Adds fat to the force-meat, keeping it moist and rich as it cooks.
Egg yolk: Binds the force-meat so it holds together when cooked.
Sweetbreads: Add a tender, rich texture to the filling.
Truffles: Contribute a strong, earthy aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake well. The pie must be baked long enough for the chicken, sweetbreads and force-meat to cook through fully, since the meat is cooked inside a covered crust where heat penetrates slowly and food safety depends on full cooking.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, veal, bread, anchovy, lemon, thyme):

Marjoramfits better
Parsleyfits better
Sagefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, veal, bread, anchovy, lemon, thyme. 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.

A Chicken Pie

A Chicken Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Assemble the pie

Bake and serve