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Fish Pie

A baked dish of flaked fish topped with mashed potatoes and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. 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.

Prepare

  1. Flake the fish and remove bones and skin.

  2. Place the fish in a pie dish and season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and melted butter.

  3. Cover the fish with a layer of smoothly mashed potatoes.

  4. Optionally, brush the top with beaten egg yolk before baking.

Bake and brown

  1. Heat the pie in a 350°F (175°C) oven until warmed through.

  2. If the potatoes are not browned, use a salamander or broiler to brown the top.

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 + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  3. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Remains of any fish
Forms the main body of the filling and provides the flavour of the pie.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the fish and keeping it moist.
Mashed potatoes
Forms a soft topping that bakes and browns into a crust over the filling.
Egg yolk
Brushed on top, it helps the potato topping take on a deeper golden colour.

The step that matters

Browning the potato top. Mashed potato browns slowly at 350°F, so the top may stay pale. A salamander or broiler adds direct heat that browns the surface quickly, but it can scorch if left unattended.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, butter, egg. 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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