Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
Chicken Pie
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.
Cook the chicken
Clean the chickens and cut them into serving pieces.
Place the chicken in a stew pan with hot water, salt, and pepper.
Bring to a boil, skim, and simmer for 1.5 hours.
Remove the chicken and place it in a deep pie dish.
Bring the broth to a rapid boil for 15 minutes and skim off the fat.
Make the gravy and custard
In a frying pan, melt the butter, then add the flour. Stir until smooth but not browned.
Gradually stir in the chicken broth and cook for 10 minutes.
Beat the eggs for 10 minutes.
Gradually add the gravy to the eggs.
Pour the egg mixture over the chicken in the pie dish.
Let the pie cool.
Assemble and bake
Roll out a pie crust slightly larger than the dish and ¼ inch thick.
Cover the pie with the crust, turning the edges into the dish.
Roll out the remaining crust and cut small holes in it.
Place the second crust over the first crust, turning the edges slightly.
Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).
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.
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Flour and butter 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 meat and broth that form the filling.
- Eggs
- Beaten eggs mixed with gravy set during baking to give the filling body.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and broth into a smooth gravy.
- Butter
- Melted with flour to make a roux that enriches the gravy.
The step that matters
Stir the gravy-egg mixture gently. Adding hot gravy to eggs too quickly can scramble them. Adding it gradually while stirring tempers the eggs so the filling stays smooth and sets evenly.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, flour, butter, egg):
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, flour, butter, egg. 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.
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