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Pilchard and Leek Pie

A savory pie with leeks, pilchards, and cream, baked in a plain crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pilchard and Leek Pie

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. Clean and skin the white part of the leeks.

  2. Scald the leeks in a mixture of milk and water.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the leeks in a dish, adding the soaked pilchards between the layers.

  2. Cover the dish with a plain pie crust.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

Finish

  1. Remove the pie from the oven and lift the side crust with a knife to empty out the liquid.

  2. Pour in 1 pint of scalded cream.

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. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  2. Leek + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together158 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Leek + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Leeks
Form the bulk of the filling and soften into a mild, sweet onion flavor when scalded.
Salted pilchards
Add a salty, savory fish flavor that contrasts with the mild leeks.
Milk
Adds moisture and gentle richness to the liquid used to scald the leeks.
Plain pie crust
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven to form a golden top.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, moist texture to the finished filling.

The step that matters

Emptying the liquid before adding the cream. Lifting the side crust to drain the liquid that has collected in the pie keeps the added scalded cream from being watered down, so it sets the filling with a richer texture.

Swap the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream. 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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