Skip to main content
Bread

Yale Boat Pie

A savory pie with steak, chicken, oysters, eggs, mushrooms, ale, and glaze, topped with pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Season the steak with pepper and salt, and place it in a medium-sized dish.

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

  4. Add the oysters and hard boiled eggs over the chicken.

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

  6. Cover the mixture with fresh mushrooms and add the glaze or neats-foot jelly.

  7. Cover the dish with a substantial pie crust.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the preheated oven 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. Pepper + mushroomtop 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
Forms the base layer that slowly releases meat juices and flavour into the pie.
Chickens
Adds savoury meat that turns tender and rich during the long, covered bake.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour that blends into the meat and gravy.
Hard boiled eggs
Add richness and body to the filling as they soften in the juices.
Strong ale
Adds liquid and malty, slightly bitter flavour to the bottom of the dish.
Glaze or neats-foot jelly
Adds gelatin that thickens the juices and gives the filling a silky body.

The step that matters

Covering the dish with the pie crust. The crust must seal the dish so steam and juices stay inside to cook the meat gently. A loose or leaky seal lets liquid escape, leaving the filling dry and the crust underbaked.

“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

Breaded ChickenBreaded Chicken23 recipesCornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipes