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Roast Stuffed Pike, Wine Sauce

Roasted pike stuffed with fish stuffing, pickled gherkins, anchovies, and butter, served with a wine and broth sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Roast Stuffed Pike, Wine Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale the pike.

  2. Clean the pike thoroughly.

  3. Fill the pike with plain fish stuffing.

  4. Remove part of the skin.

  5. Attach alternate rows of pickled gherkins and anchovies on each side.

  6. Truss the head to the body.

  7. Insert a large skewer lengthwise through the pike.

Roast

  1. Spread mellow butter mixed with chopped chives, parsley, salt, and pepper on a large sheet of thick white paper.

  2. Wrap the pike in the paper and secure it.

  3. Roast in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 50 minutes, basting occasionally with melted butter.

  4. Unwrap the fish and place it on a serving dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Combine the drippings with white broth and white wine to make a sauce.

  2. Strain the sauce.

  3. Glaze the fish with meat or fish extract.

  4. Pour the sauce around it.

  5. Serve.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Chive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pike
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole and kept moist inside the paper wrap.
Plain fish stuffing
Fills the cavity, adding body and moisture to the fish as it roasts.
Mellow butter
Adds fat and richness, moistening the fish and helping it brown while basted.
Anchovies
Contribute a salty, savoury depth that seasons the fish from within.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the pan drippings that form the sauce.

The step that matters

Roast in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 50 minutes, basting occasionally with melted butter.. A whole fish cooks quickly and dries out easily. Regular basting with butter adds fat that keeps the surface moist and helps it brown, while the paper wrap traps steam and protects the flesh.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, parsley, pepper, white wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, parsley, pepper, white wine. 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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