Name: Fish and Oyster Pie
Ingredients: remains of cold fish (such as cod or haddock); 2 dozen oysters; pepper to taste; salt to taste; bread crumbs (sufficient for the quantity of fish); 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg; 1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley; made melted butter or thin white sauce; oyster liquor

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 and Oyster Pie

Ingredients

remains of cold fish (such as cod or haddock)
2 dozen oysters
pepper to taste
salt to taste
bread crumbs (sufficient for the quantity of fish)
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
made melted butter or thin white sauce
oyster liquor

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

Remove bones from the fish and layer it in a pie dish.
Sprinkle the fish with pepper and salt.
Add a layer of bread crumbs, oysters, nutmeg, and chopped parsley.
Repeat layers until the dish is full.

Top and bake

Top with browned bread crumbs or puff pastry cut into strips laid in a cross pattern.
Pour in melted butter or thin white sauce and oyster liquor before covering.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes if using cooked fish, or 1 hour if using fresh fish and puff pastry.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together496 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

Fish: Forms the bulk of the pie, providing the main body and flavour of the filling.
Oysters: Add a briny, savoury flavour and tender texture to the layers.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture from the fish and oysters and help bind the layers together.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for the stated time. The fish and oysters are already cooked or cook quickly, so the time must match whether the fish is cooked or fresh. Baking too long dries the filling and toughens the oysters, while too little leaves fresh fish underdone.

Swap the nutmeg

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

Thymefits better
Capersfits better
Marjoramfits better
Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, oyster, pepper, bread, parsley, butter. 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.