Name: A Rich Fish-Pie, or Baked Fish
Ingredients: 3 medium-sized haddocks, mackerels, or soles; Butter; Bread crumbs; Fish forcemeat or yolks of hard-boiled eggs (optional); Mashed potatoes (optional)

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 ↓

A Rich Fish-Pie, or Baked Fish

Ingredients

3 medium-sized haddocks, mackerels, or soles
Butter
Bread crumbs
Fish forcemeat or yolks of hard-boiled eggs (optional)
Mashed potatoes (optional)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Clean and prepare the fish, then stuff and season them well.

Assemble and bake

Place the fish in an oval flat dish, adding a puff-paste border and center ornament or a neat edging of mashed potatoes.
Dot the fish with plenty of butter or glaze and cover with bread crumbs.
For a richer dish, lay the fish on forcemeat and pour a hot sauce over them after baking.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Haddock + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together171 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock, mackerel, or sole: Forms the main body of the pie and provides the flesh that is baked and served.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish stay tender and the crumbs brown.
Bread crumbs: Forms a topping that browns in the oven and helps protect the fish from drying out.
Mashed potatoes: Makes a soft, creamy border that browns lightly and adds body around the fish.

“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.