Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Chicken Patties
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 filling
Remove the chicken from the pot and pull it into small pieces using a fork.
Season the gravy (about 2 cups) with pepper, celery, and oysters if desired.
Thicken the gravy with a little flour and bring it to a boil.
Salt the chicken while cooking.
Bake and serve
Line patty pans with puff pastry, fill with chicken and gravy, and bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,375 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,905 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Chicken + oystertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together972 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
-
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tender chicken
- Forms the main filling, providing the meaty body of each patty.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy so it holds together inside the pastry instead of running out.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, golden crust that encloses the filling.
The step that matters
Thicken the gravy with a little flour and bring it to a boil. Flour thickens only when heated enough for its starch to swell, so boiling is needed. A gravy that is not thick enough will leak out of the pastry and make the base soggy.
Swap the celery
The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, oyster, flour):
- Turmericfits better
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, oyster, flour. 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.
You might also like
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 Broth257 recipes
Chicken Soup156 recipes
Cream of Celery Soup113 recipes
Creamed Chicken89 recipes