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Yale Boat Pie

A pie of steak, chicken, oysters, hard boiled eggs and mushrooms under pastry, with strong ale and glaze or neats-foot jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Yale Boat Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Season the steak with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Place the seasoned steak in a medium-sized dish.

  3. Add the seasoned chicken pieces on top of the steak.

Layer and cover

  1. Layer the oysters over the chicken.

  2. Layer the hard boiled eggs over the oysters.

  3. Dampen the bottom of the dish with the strong ale.

  4. Cover the mixture with fresh mushrooms.

  5. Add the glaze or neats-foot jelly.

  6. Cover the dish with pastry.

Bake

  1. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Beef + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Undercut steak
Provides the main meat flavour and becomes tender during the long slow cooking.
Chickens
Adds savoury meat and juices that flavour the layers beneath the pastry.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, rich flavour that melts into the filling as it cooks.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body and richness to the filling as they soften in the layers.
Glaze or neats-foot jelly
Adds gelatin that thickens the juices and gives a rich, glossy body.
Strong ale
Adds malty depth and moisture to the base of the dish.

The step that matters

Cover the dish with pastry. The pastry seals the filling so steam and juices stay inside, keeping the meat moist and building the sauce. A loose or gapped seal lets liquid escape and the filling dry out.

“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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