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Halibut and Grapefruit with a Pork Pie Sauce

For this recipe you will need a 10cm/4in pork pie and a food grade plastic syringe.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 25 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and grapefruit work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and 17 recipes mention both. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook2 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the 175g lard, 175g butter, 85g milk and 75ml water in a pan until melted and just boiling. Tip onto the 500g flour and 1 tsp salt, then beat in the egg yolk, reserving a little for glazing. Knead into a dough, cover and rest 30 minutes.

  2. Finely chop the 200g pork and the 25g Granny Smith apple. Mix with the breadcrumbs, mustard, quatre-épices and a pinch of fleur de sel. Cut the 800g pork belly and 600g pork into 2cm cubes and mix in.

  3. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a pie mould with two thirds of the pastry, fill with the pork mixture, cover with the remaining pastry, seal the edges, cut a vent and brush with the reserved yolk.

  4. Bake for 90 minutes until golden, covering loosely if browning too fast. The pork must reach 160°F (71°C) in the centre. Cool slightly.

  5. Soak the 2 gelatine sheets in cold water for 5 minutes. Warm the 250ml apple juice, dissolve the drained gelatine in it, and pour into the pie through the vent. Chill until set.

  6. Toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan, then chop. Peel the pink grapefruit and cut out the segments. Wilt the spring greens in a splash of water with a pinch of salt, then drain.

  7. Pat the halibut dry, season with fleur de sel and fry in a dash of olive oil for 3 to 4 minutes per side until opaque and flaking, reaching 145°F (63°C).

  8. Simmer the 300ml fish stock and 50ml apple juice until reduced by half. Whisk in the 60g salted butter off the heat to make a sauce. Serve the halibut with greens, grapefruit, hazelnuts, sauce and pie slices.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pork + grapefruittop 19% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + appletop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,099 recipes

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

  4. Pork + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,383 recipes

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

  5. Pork + mustardtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,440 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, milk, flour, egg, apple, hazelnut):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  3. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, milk, flour, egg, apple, hazelnut. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).