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Fish Pxe

A baked fish pie with a crust, seasoned fish, and a mushroom ragout.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Fish Pxe

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.

Prepare the pie

  1. Scale the fish and cut it into pieces.

  2. Line a pie dish with a good crust.

  3. Place the fish in the dish with sweet herbs, salt, bruised spices, and a layer of butter on top.

  4. Cover with the crust and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1.5 hours.

  5. Remove excess fat after baking.

Make the ragout

  1. For the vegetable ragout, stir butter and flour over heat until pale brown.

  2. Moisten with ½ cup sherry and vegetable broth, adding mushrooms, salt, and herbs.

  3. Let it boil for 30 minutes.

  4. Add parboiled soft roes of carp and stew for 15 minutes.

  5. Pour the ragout into the pies.

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. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Fish + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together444 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Butter and flour 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

Fish
Forms the main body of the filling and gives the pie its flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and browns with the flour to build the ragout's flavour.
Flour
Thickens the ragout as it cooks with the butter and liquid.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich ragout.
Mushrooms
Add savoury depth and moisture to the vegetable ragout.
Carp roes
Add a soft, creamy texture and richness to the ragout.

The step that matters

Stir the butter and flour until pale brown. The roux must cook long enough to lose its raw floury taste and thicken the liquid, but stopping at pale brown keeps it from scorching and turning bitter before the broth is added.

“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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