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Bream or John Dory Pie

A savory fish pie made with bream or John Dory, eggs, herbs, and a puff pastry crust.

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 the filling

  1. Cut the bream into slices.

  2. Mix the butter, bread crumbs, shallots, thyme, marjoram, parsley, anchovy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, and salt 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 rough puff pastry and bake at 350 °F (175 °C) for 1.5 hours.

Finish

  1. After baking, mix Worcestershire 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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Bream
Forms the main body of the pie and cooks through beneath the pastry.
Eggs
Add richness and a firm, sliceable texture to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying the herbs and seasonings through the balls.
Bread crumbs
Bind the butter and seasonings into small balls and soak up flavour.
Stock
Adds moisture and savoury depth to the filling after baking.

The step that matters

Pouring the stock mixture after baking. Liquid added after baking stays loose and cannot be cooked into the filling, so the sauce must be mixed and poured in just as the recipe directs to keep the pie moist rather than soggy or dry.

“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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