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Chicken Pie

A savory pie filled with chicken, ham or bacon, force-meat, hard-boiled eggs, and a rich veal and mutton gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Season the cut-up chickens with white pepper, coarse sea salt, mace, and nutmeg.

  2. Layer the chicken, ham or bacon, force-meat, and hard-boiled eggs in a dish.

Make the gravy

  1. Prepare gravy using veal knuckle, mutton shank bones, herbs, and onion.

  2. If using a dish, fill it with gravy.

  3. If using a raised crust, strain the gravy.

  4. Let the strained gravy cool to jelly.

  5. Remove the fat from the jelly.

Finish and bake

  1. Whip the egg whites.

  2. Boil the mixture.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  4. Add scalded parsley in milk.

  5. Season the mixture.

  6. Add a cup of broth or weak gravy.

  7. Bake until golden.

  8. Serve.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Form the main body of the pie filling and supply the meat.
Egg whites
Whipped to add lightness and help bind the mixture as it sets.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firmness and a sliced visual layer inside the pie.
Veal knuckle
Provides gelatin-rich body so the gravy sets to a jelly as it cools.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture to the mixture.
Flour
Thickens the mixture so it holds its shape.

The step that matters

Let the strained gravy cool to jelly. The gravy must be fully chilled and set before the fat is removed. Gelatin from the veal and bones is what makes it firm; if it is not properly cooled, the jelly stays loose and the fat cannot be cleanly lifted off.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, mace, nutmeg, ham, meat, egg, veal):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mace, nutmeg, ham, meat, egg, veal. 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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