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Fish Pate

A baked potato shell filled with a crab and fish mixture seasoned with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Pate

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Build the potato shell

  1. Mash the desired amount of potatoes with a good piece of butter.

  2. Using the bowls of 2 silver spoons, form a 2½-inch high wall of mashed potatoes within the rim of a dish.

  3. Make the upper part of the potato wall thinner than the lower part.

  4. Smooth the upper part of the potato wall.

  5. Brush the potato wall all over with beaten egg.

  6. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until hot and slightly colored.

  7. Optionally, decorate the outside of the potato wall with small shapes cut from paste.

  8. Brush the decorated potato wall with beaten egg.

Make the crab filling

  1. In a mortar, beat the crab meat with white pepper, coarse sea salt, nutmeg, and a few bread crumbs.

  2. Warm the crab mixture with gravy thickened with cream or butter and 1 tablespoon of wine.

  3. Once warmed, add a little lemon juice.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the crab mixture into the baked potato walls.

  2. Serve hot.

  3. Optionally, brown the top with a salamander.

  4. Optionally, garnish with small claws.

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

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

  2. Crab + meattop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + crabtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 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

Potatoes
Mashed potatoes form the sturdy wall that holds the filling in shape.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the mashed potatoes, making them smooth and tender.
Egg
Beaten egg brushed on the wall sets and browns it in the oven.
Crab meat
Forms the main filling, providing the dish's flavor and soft texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the crab mixture so it holds together.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the warmed gravy sauce.

The step that matters

Warming the crab mixture gently before adding lemon juice. Lemon juice is added once the mixture is warm, not while it is boiling, because strong heat can make the delicate crab meat tough and dull the fresh acidity.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, egg, crab, meat, nutmeg, bread):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, egg, crab, meat, nutmeg, bread. 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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