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; ½ cup cold water; Pastry for pie crust; Optional: bits of lean ham for 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 the filling

Prepare the chicken as for boiling, then cut the chicken into joints.
Season the chicken with salt, white pepper, and nutmeg or pounded mace.
Arrange the chicken neatly in a pie dish lined with pastry.
Add the halved hard-boiled eggs among the chicken.
Pour in the cold water.

Assemble and bake

Cover the pie with a thick pastry lid.
Trim and decorate the edge of the pastry.
Make a hole in the center of the pastry.
Bake the pie in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 1.5 hours.

Make the gravy and serve

Optional: Boil the back and neck bones with bits of lean ham to make gravy.
Pour the gravy 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 oven and becomes tender in the filling.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add richness and a firm, sliced texture to the filling.
Pastry: Forms the crust that encloses the filling and holds in its moisture during baking.
Cold water: Adds moisture to the pie so the filling stays juicy as it bakes.