Why it works: Bread and butter 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 Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Cut the fish into small pieces.
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Make the filling
Add the crumbled bread and fish to the boiling milk and simmer until thoroughly cooked.
Pour the mixture into a pie dish and beat it with a fork until smooth.
Add the egg, butter, salt, and pepper, and mix well.
Bake
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together764 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Haddock
- Forms the main body of the pie, providing the flaky filling texture when cooked.
- Bread
- Absorbs the milk and helps thicken the filling into a soft, cohesive mixture.
- Milk
- Cooks the fish gently and forms the moist, creamy base of the filling.
- Egg
- Binds the filling and sets during baking to hold the pie together.
The step that matters
Simmering the fish and bread in milk. Simmering until the fish is thoroughly cooked matters because undercooked fish stays opaque and rubbery, and the milk must be hot enough to soften the bread so it blends smoothly.
“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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