Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,036 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: breadcrumbs, bread
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 the stuffing
Mix the soaked bread, butter, anchovy, parsley, sweet herbs, liver or roe, lemon peel, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and egg yolks together.
Stuff the mixture into the belly of the pike and sew it up.
Shape and dress the fish
Shape the pike into an 'S' and rub the yolk of an egg over it.
Grate some nutmeg on top and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Dot with butter and place on an iron plate.
Roast and serve
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Bake or roast in the oven for about 30-40 minutes.
Serve with a sauce made of good anchovies and butter.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,036 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,062 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pike
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through to flaky, moist flesh in the oven.
- Penny loaf
- Soaked in cream, it binds the stuffing and keeps it moist as it roasts.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, moistening the stuffing and the surface as it browns.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the stuffing together and add richness and colour to the outer skin.
- Anchovy
- Contributes a savoury, salty depth to the stuffing and to the sauce.
The step that matters
Rubbing the egg yolk over the fish. Egg yolk gives the surface a glossy, golden browning in the oven. Applying it evenly before roasting helps the skin colour uniformly instead of in patches.
Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, anchovy, parsley, liver, lemon, pepper):
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- Marjoramabout as good a flavor fit
- Nutmegthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, anchovy, parsley, liver, lemon, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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