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Fish Relish

A baked dish of mashed potatoes, minced fish, roe, and eggs, seasoned with butter, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Fish Relish

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

  1. Dry the roe, which should be well boiled.

  2. Mince the cold fish and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Mix the roe with the drawn butter and the yolks of the boiled eggs.

  4. Cut the egg whites into thin rings.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer mashed potatoes at the bottom of a deep buttered dish.

  2. Alternate layers of fish, drawn butter, and egg white rings with more potato on top.

  3. Cover and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until it smokes and bubbles.

  4. Remove the cover for a few minutes to brown.

Serve

  1. Serve in the baking dish and pass pickles with it.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  5. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 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

Drawn butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavour through the layers and keeping the dish from drying.
Eggs
Egg yolks bind the roe and butter, while the whites add set structure to the layers.
Mashed potato
Forms soft layers that hold moisture and make the dish substantial.
Cold fish
Provides the main savoury flavour and body of the relish.
Roe
Adds a concentrated, briny flavour and a firm texture when dried and minced.

The step that matters

Layering and baking covered, then uncovering to brown. Baking covered traps steam so the fish and potato cook through and stay moist; uncovering at the end lets surface browning develop through the Maillard reaction, so timing the uncovered stage matters.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, fish, roe, parsley, pepper. 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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