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Fish Pie

A baked dish of haddock and oysters topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fish Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Clean, skin, and fillet the haddocks.

Layer the dish

  1. Butter a flat dish and add a layer of bread crumbs.

  2. Add a layer of haddock cut into pieces, followed by oysters, lemon juice, and seasonings.

  3. Repeat layers until all fish is used, finishing with bread crumbs and small pieces of butter on top.

  4. Pour over the oyster liquor mixed with the beaten egg and milk.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 30 minutes.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Forms the main body of the pie and cooks into flaky, tender pieces.
Oysters
Add briny, savoury flavour that seasons the fish layers.
Egg
Binds the oyster liquor and milk so the topping sets into a custard-like layer.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture and helps the bread crumbs brown on top.
Milk
Adds moisture and body to the liquid that sets around the fish.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and form a crisp, golden topping and layer.

The step that matters

Pour over the liquid evenly. The egg and milk mixture sets as it bakes, so pouring it over the layers lets it soak through and bind the fish. Uneven pouring leaves dry patches or pooled liquid.

“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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