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Salt Fish Pie

A savory pie made with salt fish, eggs, spices, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salt Fish Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the salt fish thoroughly to remove excess salt.

  2. Pull the fish into pieces using a fork.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the fish with chopped hard boiled eggs, cayenne, black pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Fill your pie dish with the mixture and add enough milk to cover it.

  3. Bake the pie until done, then lift the lid and add more milk if it appears too dry.

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. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Salt fish
Provides the main savoury flavour and the body of the filling.
Hard boiled eggs
Add richness and set into a firm, sliceable texture as the pie cooks.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the filling as it bakes.

The step that matters

Soaking the salt fish. Salt fish is heavily cured, so soaking it thoroughly draws out excess salt. Skipping or shortening this step can leave the pie overly salty, and the remaining salt also affects how much seasoning the filling needs.

Swap the potato

The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, pepper, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, pepper, milk. 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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