Name: Fish Pie
Ingredients: 1 haddock; 1 pint milk; 2 tablespoons butter; ½ cup flour; 2 egg yolks; ½ cup bread crumbs; ½ cup grated cheese; salt to taste; pepper to taste

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

Boil the haddock and remove the best part of the fish.

Make the sauce

In a bowl, combine the milk, butter, flour, and egg yolks; mix well.
Add the fish to the mixture and stir to combine.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble and bake

Transfer the mixture to a pudding dish.
Sprinkle the bread crumbs and grated cheese on top.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,426 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks: Enrich and thicken the sauce, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Flour: Thickens the milk and butter into a binding sauce that holds the fish together.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the sauce and carries flavour.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the sauce that coats the fish.
Haddock: Provides the main fish filling and flavour of the pie.
Grated cheese: Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.

“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.