Name: Chicken Pie
Ingredients: 1 young chicken; thin slices of ham; forcemeat balls (made from cooked liver, 2 oz tongue, 2 oz ham, yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs, 1 oz butter); gravy (made from chicken bones, giblets, and trimmings); flaky pie crust

Why it works: Chicken and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

1 young chicken
thin slices of ham
forcemeat balls (made from cooked liver, 2 oz tongue, 2 oz ham, yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs, 1 oz butter)
gravy (made from chicken bones, giblets, and trimmings)
flaky pie crust

Directions

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

Prepare

Cut the chicken into neat joints.

Assemble and bake

Layer chicken, ham, and forcemeat balls in a pie dish until full.
Pour in gravy made from the chicken bones and giblets.
Cover with flaky crust.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for one hour.

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.

Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,497 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together298 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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, cooking into tender pieces inside the crust.
Gravy: Adds moisture and savoury flavour so the filling does not dry out in the oven.
Flaky pie crust: Encloses the filling and browns in the oven as a crisp, golden lid.

“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.