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Fish Kelish

A baked casserole of fish, eggs, mashed potatoes, and roe, 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 Kelish

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 boiled roe well.

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

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

  4. Cut the egg whites into thin rings.

Layer 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, finishing with more mashed potatoes on top.

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

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

Serve

  1. Serve in the baking dish with pickles.

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, keeping the layers from drying out during baking.
Mashed potato
Forms the base and top layers, giving a soft, starchy body that holds the fish.
Cold fish
Provides the main protein, which firms as it bakes and gives the dish its substance.
Hard boiled eggs
Yolks bind with the roe and butter into a rich mixture, while whites add texture.
Roe
Adds a concentrated, savoury flavour and a firm, grainy texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Cover and bake until it smokes and bubbles. Covering traps steam so the layers heat through evenly, then uncovering lets surface moisture evaporate so the top can brown rather than stew.

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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