Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Fish Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix the mustard with enough melted butter to make it rich.
Beat the mustard and butter mixture with the minced fish until well combined.
Cover the bottom of a baking dish with pastry.
Pour the fish mixture into the dish.
Bake and serve
Cover with a lid and bake until cooked through.
Serve hot.
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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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,003 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Fish + mustardtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together238 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Forms the bulk of the filling and sets into a tender, flaky texture when cooked.
- Mustard
- Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the butter and fish.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and moisture, helping the mustard blend into the fish mixture.
- Pastry
- Forms a base that holds the filling and becomes crisp and golden as it bakes.
The step that matters
Beating the mustard and butter into the fish. Beating until well combined spreads the mustard and fat evenly through the fish, so every bite has the same seasoning and moisture instead of pockets of sharp mustard.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionfits better
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter. 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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