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Fish Pie

A baked fish pie with a sauce of milk, butter, corn starch, onion, and seasonings, topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 24 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fish Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce

  1. Prepare about 1 quart cold boiled fish, 1 pint milk, 1 large tablespoonful butter, 1 onion, 1 teaspoon corn starch or flour, a little green celery or parsley.

  2. Add salt and pepper.

  3. Drop the onion into the cold milk and when it comes to a boil take out the onion.

  4. Add corn starch mixed first with a little cold milk, butter and seasoning.

Assemble and bake

  1. Put a layer of sauce into the dish first, then fish, and repeat until all is used.

  2. Cover the top with breadcrumbs and bake half an hour or more, according to oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

789Calories
22 gProtein
19 gFat
125 gCarbs

Counts 13 of 15 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Corn + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together712 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Corn + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,205 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fish (in the method)
Forms the bulk of the pie, giving it its main body and flavor.
Milk (in the method)
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the seasonings and thickening.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that binds the fish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the sauce, improving flavor and mouthfeel.
Onion
Infuses the milk with aroma and is removed before assembly.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with corn starch. Starch must be mixed with cold milk first so it does not clump, then heated so the granules swell and thicken the sauce evenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, sugar, vinegar, sauce, flour, butter, onion):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, sugar, vinegar, sauce, flour, butter, onion. 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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