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Fish Pie

A baked dish of mashed potatoes topped with cooked fish and sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the potato

  1. Mash the potatoes.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the potatoes.

  3. Add a little milk if the mixture is not moist enough, and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble the pie

  1. Spread a layer of the potato in a buttered pie dish.

  2. Break the fish into small pieces and place it on top of the potato.

  3. Season with more salt and pepper and add 3 tablespoons of sauce.

  4. Cover the pie with the remaining potatoes, piling them high and marking ridges with a fork.

  5. Optionally, brush the top with egg before baking to glaze it.

Bake

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes until the potatoes are brown.

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

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

  2. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked fish
Forms the main filling, giving the pie its substance and flavor.
Cooked potatoes
Form the soft layers above and below the fish and brown on top when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the potato, helping it taste smooth and stay moist.
White, anchovy, or parsley sauce
Adds moisture and flavor to the fish layer so it does not dry out in the oven.

The step that matters

Adding milk to the potato. Potato needs enough moisture to be spreadable and to hold its shape in layers. If it is too dry it will be crumbly and hard to spread, while too much liquid makes it slack and soggy.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, milk, pepper, anchovy):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, milk, pepper, anchovy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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