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Fish Pie

A savory pie with fish, eggs, mushrooms, and stock encased in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fish Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dish

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line a dish with the pastry.

Assemble the filling

  1. Cut the fish into pieces and place it in the dish.

  2. Slice the hard boiled eggs and add them on top of the fish.

  3. Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Pour the white stock over the filling.

Top and bake

  1. Cover with more pastry and decorate the top.

  2. Bake for 45 minutes.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Fish + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together444 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 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

Rough puff pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky top and base that enclose the filling.
Fish
Provides the main filling, which cooks through gently in the baking dish.
Hard boiled eggs
Add richness and a soft, firm texture to the filling.
White stock
Adds moisture and savory flavor, keeping the filling from drying out in the oven.
Mushrooms
Add earthy savory flavor and a tender texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Pour the white stock over the filling. Too little liquid lets the fish dry out as it bakes, while the stock keeps the filling moist and helps the pastry cook evenly underneath the top layer.

“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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