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Bream or John Dory Pie

A pie of sliced bream or John Dory layered with hard-boiled egg, seasoned bread-crumb balls, and a stock sauce, baked under pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Bream or John Dory Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the bream into slices.

  2. Mix the butter, bread-crumbs, shalot, thyme, marjoram, parsley, anchovy sauce, Worcester sauce, cayenne pepper, and salt together to form small balls.

  3. Cut the hard-boiled eggs into quarters.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the bream in a pie dish, followed by a layer of egg, seasoning balls, and optional lobster pieces.

  2. Cover with a rough puff pastry crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours.

Finish

  1. After baking, mix the Worcester and anchovy sauce with the stock and pour into the pie.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bream or john dory
Forms the main body of the pie, providing the flaky fish filling.
Eggs
Add richness and a firm, sliced texture to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the seasoning balls hold together and taste rich.
Bread-crumbs
Bind the butter and seasonings into small balls and soak up flavour.
Shalots
Contribute a mild onion-like aroma and sweetness to the seasoning balls.
Stock
Adds moisture and savoury depth to the filling poured in after baking.

The step that matters

Pour the sauce into the pie after baking. The liquid is added after baking so the pastry stays crisp and the fish is not overcooked. Adding it before baking could make the crust soggy.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, bread, thyme, parsley, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Marjoramthe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, bread, thyme, parsley, anchovy, sauce. 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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