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Fish and Oyster Pie

A savory pie made with cold fish, oysters, breadcrumbs, spices, and butter or sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

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 layers

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Remove bones from the cold fish and layer it in a pie dish.

  3. Sprinkle with pepper and salt, then add a layer of breadcrumbs, oysters, nutmeg, and parsley.

  4. Repeat layers until the dish is full.

Top and bake

  1. Cover with browned breadcrumbs or puff pastry.

  2. Cut the pastry into strips for a lattice top.

  3. Pour melted butter or thin white sauce and oyster liquor over the top before covering.

  4. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes if using cooked fish, or 20 minutes 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.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 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 main body of the pie, giving it flakes and substance.
Oysters
Release their liquor and add a briny, savoury flavour to the filling.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture from the layers and add body, and brown on top.
Melted butter or thin white sauce
Adds fat and moisture, enriching the top and helping it brown.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic note that complements the fish and oysters.

The step that matters

Match the bake time to the fish. Cooked fish only needs heating through and the top needs to brown, so it bakes less than raw fish. Raw fish must cook through in the oven, so using the shorter time can leave it underdone and using the longer time can dry out the pie.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

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

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