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Coulibiac

A Russian fish casserole made with rice, eel, eggs, and a buttery dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Coulibiac

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.

Make the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast in warm milk in a basin.

  2. Strain into another basin and mix in enough flour to make a soft paste.

  3. Cover with a cloth and let it rise in a warm place.

  4. Once risen, gradually add 4 cups of sifted flour, melted butter, eggs, and a little milk.

  5. Work the paste until it has some consistency and let it rise again.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out half of the Coulibiac paste into a square about ½ inch thick and place it on a well buttered baking sheet.

  2. Layer with boiled rice, chopped hard-boiled eggs, and eel pieces.

  3. Sprinkle with ground spice, chopped herbs, salt, and pepper.

  4. Cover with the remaining half of the paste, sealing the edges.

  5. Shape it into a ball and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  6. Serve hot on a dish.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the filling and paste set when baked.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the dough and gives a rich flavour and browning.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the paste its structure and chew.
Eel
Provides the main savoury filling and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise. Yeast needs warmth and time to produce gas; a under-risen paste stays dense and heavy, while proper rising gives a light, airy crust.

“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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