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 gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Clean the fish and stuff them with minced veal or fowl, if using, along with bread crumbs and salt.
Assemble and bake
Place the fish on a flat dish and create a border with the mashed potatoes.
Spread butter over the fish and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Top with balls of forcemeat, if desired.
Bake until the fish is cooked through.
Pour thick brown gravy over the pie before serving.
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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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Haddock + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together171 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Bread + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together434 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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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
- Haddocks, mackerels, or soles
- Provide the flaky fish that forms the main body of the pie.
- Potatoes
- Form a soft mashed border that holds the pie together and adds bulk.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, helping the surface brown in the oven.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and form a crisp, golden crust on top.
- Thick brown gravy
- Adds savory moisture and flavor to the finished pie.
The step that matters
Bake until the fish is cooked through. Fish cooks quickly and becomes dry or rubbery if overbaked, while underbaked fish is unsafe to eat. Check that it flakes easily at the thickest point.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, veal, bread, butter):
- Potatothe original
- Onionfits about as well
- Tomatofits less well
- Chivefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, veal, bread, butter. 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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