Skip to main content
Main

Fish Pie

A baked dish of fish, mashed potatoes, and a butter‑flour sauce, topped with breadcrumbs and browned under a broiler.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the fish filling

  1. Cook the onion with butter in a saucepan until soft but not browned.

  2. Add the fish and mashed potatoes to the saucepan.

  3. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

  4. Stir the mixture until hot and well mixed.

  5. Transfer the fish mixture to a hot dish.

  6. Sprinkle the mixture with breadcrumbs.

  7. Baste the mixture with warmed butter.

  8. Brown the mixture under a broiler.

Make the sauce

  1. Boil fish bones in water for 30 minutes in another saucepan.

  2. Strain the broth to obtain about 1 teacup of liquid.

  3. Stir in flour until smooth.

  4. Warm the mixture over heat until thick.

  5. Add a lump of butter until the mixture is mixed in.

  6. Remove the mixture from heat.

  7. Mix in the beaten egg, anchovy essence, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

  8. Mix the sauce with the fish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie dish with mashed potatoes.

  2. Place the mixture in the pie dish.

  3. Cover with another layer of mashed potatoes.

  4. Decorate the top with a fork.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes or until the potato crust is 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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + fishtop 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

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the filling and the crust layers, giving body and a soft texture.
Flour
Thickens the fish broth into a smooth sauce as it warms.
Beaten egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set firmly when heated.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and browns the top when basted.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Warming the flour into the broth. Flour must be stirred smooth and heated until thick so it gelatinises into a sauce. If it clumps or is not heated enough, the sauce stays lumpy or thin and does not bind the fish.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, potato, pepper, fish, flour, egg, 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.

More fish pie recipes

Ling 12Salt 9Cod 8Sauce 4Tench and Eel 4with Tench and Eels 3 See all 121 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipes