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Fish Pie, with Tench and Eels, and Hard Eggs

A savory pie made with tench, eels, hard‑boiled egg yolks, mushrooms, and puff pastry, baked in a broth base.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Pie, with Tench and Eels, and Hard Eggs

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

  1. Clean the tench.

  2. Skin the eels.

  3. Bone the tench.

  4. Bone the eels.

  5. Cut the eels into 2-inch pieces.

Make the broth

  1. Put the bones, onions, parsley, mace, anchovies, and stock into a pot.

  2. Boil slowly for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the broth.

  4. Skim off the fat.

  5. Let the broth cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Combine the tench, eels, whole mushrooms, and egg yolks in a dish.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley.

  3. Pour in some of the cooled broth.

  4. Cover the dish with puff pastry.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

  6. Wait until the pastry begins to color.

  7. Pour more broth over the pastry.

  8. Brush the top of the pie with egg.

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. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 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

Tench
Forms the flaky fish filling that gives the pie its main body.
Eels
Adds rich, firm pieces of fish that hold their shape during baking.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a creamy, crumbly texture to the filling.
Anchovies
Contribute savory depth to the broth that flavors the pie.
Stock
Provides the liquid base of the broth that keeps the filling moist.

The step that matters

Wait until the pastry begins to color. Pouring broth over the pastry too early can make it soggy. Waiting until it starts to brown lets the crust set and color before adding more liquid.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, parsley, pepper, mushroom, egg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, parsley, pepper, mushroom, egg. 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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