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Roman Pie of Fish

A baked fish pie with puff pastry, vermicelli, oysters, macaroni, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roman Pie of Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Trim and cook the fish fillets in a well‑buttered baking tin for 8‑10 minutes with lemon juice, white pepper, and minced parsley, covered with buttered paper.

Assemble the pie

  1. Line a raised pie mold with puff pastry and sprinkle the inside with cooked vermicelli.

  2. Pack the mold with layers of fish fillets, bearded oysters, and cooked macaroni, sprinkling each layer with minced shallot, vermicelli, white pepper, salt, and grated Parmesan cheese.

  3. Moisten the top with oyster liquor and add ⅓ cup of cream.

  4. Cover with puff pastry and bake until golden.

Serve

  1. Turn out of the mold and serve with brown sauce.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Lemon + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Forms the crisp, golden outer shell that encloses the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the fish moist while it cooks.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and browning to the layers.
Bearded oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the fish before layering. Fish fillets cook quickly and can dry out or overcook inside the pie while it bakes. Partly cooking them first, covered to hold in moisture, helps keep them tender.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, lemon, parsley, butter, oyster, shallot, parmesan cheese):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, lemon, parsley, butter, oyster, shallot, parmesan cheese. 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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