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To Boil Pike

A boiled pike stuffed with oysters, bread crumbs, suet or butter, anchovies, onion, herbs, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Boil Pike

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Prepare the pike by washing it clean and removing the gills.

Make and stuff the forcemeat

  1. In a bowl, mix the oysters, bread crumbs, suet or butter, anchovies, onion, pepper, salt, nutmeg, parsley, marjoram, thyme, savory, and beaten egg to create the forcemeat.

  2. Stuff the forcemeat into the pike and sew it up.

Boil and serve

  1. In a large pot, bring salted water and vinegar to a boil.

  2. Carefully add the stuffed pike and let it boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve with oyster sauce or melted butter, or broil if desired.

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. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Nutmeg + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the forcemeat so it holds together inside the fish.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat body and a soft texture.
Suet or butter
Adds fat, keeping the forcemeat moist and rich as it cooks.
Oysters
Contribute savory, briny flavor to the forcemeat stuffing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the boiling liquid, sharpening the flavor of the fish.

The step that matters

Carefully add the stuffed pike and let it boil for 30 minutes.. Lowering the fish gently into simmering liquid helps it keep its shape and prevents the stuffed skin from splitting. Keeping the liquid at a steady boil cooks the fish and forcemeat through evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, bread, beef, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, marjoram):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, bread, beef, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, marjoram. 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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