Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Fish Pie
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add the flour and stir for 1 minute.
Gradually whisk in the milk and cream, cooking until the sauce thickens.
Stir in the minced parsley, then bring to a boil.
Assemble and bake
Add the fish and sherry, mixing gently.
Pour the mixture into a pastry-lined pie dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Forms the main body of the filling and provides the dish's substance.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavour into the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk and cream into a smooth, stable sauce.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it body when thickened.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, making the sauce silkier and more velvety.
- Sherry
- Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the sauce and fish.
The step that matters
Thickening the sauce before adding the fish. Flour must be cooked with the butter and then whisked into the liquid gradually, otherwise lumps form. The sauce should thicken fully before the fish is added, so the filling holds together rather than running out when baked.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, milk, flour, cream, sherry):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Capersfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, milk, flour, cream, sherry. 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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