Name: A Common Chicken Pie
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, cut into joints; Salt, to taste; White pepper, to taste; Nutmeg or pounded mace, to taste; 3-4 hard-boiled eggs, halved; Cold water, as needed; Pastry for the pie; Lean ham, optional, for additional gravy

Why it works: White pepper and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,375 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

A Common Chicken Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Prepare the chicken as for boiling and cut it into joints.
Season the chicken with salt, white pepper, and nutmeg or pounded mace.

Assemble

Arrange the chicken neatly in a pie dish lined with pastry.
Add the halved hard-boiled eggs among the chicken pieces.
Pour in enough cold water to cover the chicken.
Cover the pie with a thick layer of pastry, trimming the edges and decorating as desired.
Make a hole in the center of the pastry and add a roll of pastry or a few leaves around it.

Bake and serve

Bake the pie in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 1.5 hours.
Optionally, boil the back and neck bones with a bit of lean ham to make additional gravy to pour into the pie after baking.

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.

White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,375 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,497 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together24,744 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
White pepper + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,312 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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: Provides the main meat, which cooks through in the covered pie to become tender.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add firm, sliced-ready richness and body among the chicken pieces.
Pastry: Forms the enclosing crust that holds in moisture and gives the pie its structure.
Ham: Adds savory, salty flavor to the optional extra gravy made from bones.