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Fish and Oyster Pie

A baked pie with flaked fish and oysters in a butter‑flour‑milk sauce topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish and Oyster Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale the fish.

  2. Clean the fish.

  3. Place the fish in a baking dish. Add water. Cover the dish with greased paper.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until tender.

  5. Remove the fish from the oven.

  6. Skin the fish. Flake the fish.

  7. Add pepper and coarse sea salt to the fish.

Make the oyster sauce

  1. Melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour until smooth.

  3. Add the milk to the sauce. Stir the sauce well.

  4. Bring the sauce to a boil for 3 minutes.

  5. Add salt to the sauce.

  6. Remove the sauce from heat.

  7. Cut the oysters in half. Add the oysters to the sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the flaked fish in a greased pie dish.

  2. Cover the fish with the oyster sauce.

  3. Sprinkle white bread crumbs over the top. Place small pieces of butter on top.

  4. Heat thoroughly in a hot oven.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Oyster + fishtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  4. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 and provides its flaky texture.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour to the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the sauce taste rounded.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that coats the fish.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it body and creaminess.
White bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping as they brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour until smooth. Flour must be cooked into the melted butter and whisked well before the milk goes in, or lumps form. Whisking breaks up the starch so the sauce thickens evenly when it boils.

“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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