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To Boil Pike

A boiled pike seasoned with vinegar, salt, and filled with oyster or veal forcemeat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and oyster work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 496 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

To Boil Pike

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the gills and clean the pike thoroughly.

  2. Soak the fish in a mixture of 1 cup vinegar and enough water to cover it for 30 minutes to avoid a muddy taste.

  3. Dry the inside of the fish and fill it with oyster forcemeat or veal forcemeat.

  4. Curl the fish and fasten it with the tail in the mouth.

Boil and serve

  1. Place it on a fish plate and cover with cold water.

  2. Add coarse sea salt as soon as the water boils.

  3. Skim the surface and boil gently for 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size.

  4. Serve with melted butter or anchovy 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. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + fishtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  3. Vinegar + oystertop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,024 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Pike
Firm, mild white flesh that holds its shape through gentle poaching.
Vinegar
Acidity that helps firm the flesh and lightly mellows any muddy flavour from the fish.
Oyster forcemeat or veal forcemeat
Rich stuffing that adds moisture and flavour to the lean fish as it cooks.

The step that matters

Boiling gently after the water boils. Once the salted water boils, keep it at a gentle simmer and skim the surface. A hard boil breaks up the delicate flesh and clouds the liquid, while skimming removes foam that would spoil the appearance and taste of the fish.

“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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