Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
To Boil Pike
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the gills and clean the pike thoroughly.
Soak the fish in a mixture of 1 cup vinegar and enough water to cover it for 30 minutes to avoid a muddy taste.
Dry the inside of the fish and fill it with oyster forcemeat or veal forcemeat.
Curl the fish and fasten it with the tail in the mouth.
Boil and serve
Place it on a fish plate and cover with cold water.
Add coarse sea salt as soon as the water boils.
Skim the surface and boil gently for 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size.
Serve with plain melted butter or anchovy sauce.
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.
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Vinegar + fishtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,036 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pike
- Is the main fish, cooked whole so its firm flesh holds its shape while boiling.
- Vinegar
- Soaking in vinegar and water is meant to reduce the muddy flavour of the fish.
- Forcemeat (in the method)
- Fills the cavity with a moist, savoury stuffing that flavours the fish from inside as it cooks.
The step that matters
Keep the water gently boiling, not vigorously. A gentle simmer cooks the fish evenly and keeps the delicate flesh from breaking apart, while a hard boil toughens and shreds it. Skimming the surface keeps the liquid clear.
“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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