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Dessert

Chicken Pie

A savory pie made with stewed chicken, oysters, and a buttery, milk-based sauce, topped with pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Stew the chickens until tender.

  2. Line the sides of a deep pie dish with pastry.

  3. Place the chicken and the reserved boiling water in the dish.

  4. Season the chicken with butter, salt, and pepper.

  5. Cover the chicken loosely with crust.

Make the oyster sauce

  1. In a pot, heat the milk (or oyster liquor) until boiling.

  2. Thicken the milk with flour.

  3. Season the milk with butter, salt, and pepper.

  4. Add the oysters to the boiling milk.

  5. Cook the oysters in the milk for a few minutes.

Bake and finish

  1. About 15 minutes before the pie is done, lift the crust.

  2. Pour the oyster mixture into the pie.

  3. Return the pie to the oven to finish 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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Chickens
Provide the main filling, which becomes tender when stewed before baking.
Oysters
Add the distinctive briny flavour and soft texture to the creamy filling.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the sauce, adding richness and body.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the filling together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the chicken and sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the milk with flour. Flour must be cooked into the boiling milk so it thickens smoothly; added raw or unevenly it leaves lumps and a floury taste. Stirring keeps the starch dispersed as it swells.

“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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