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Fish and Oyster Pie

A baked fish pie with oysters, nutmeg, parsley, and breadcrumbs or puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish and Oyster Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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.

Assemble

  1. Remove bones from the fish and layer it in a pie dish.

  2. Add a few oysters, nutmeg, and chopped parsley.

  3. Repeat layers until the dish is full.

Top and bake

  1. Pour in melted butter or thin white sauce, along with the oyster liquor.

  2. Cover with browned breadcrumbs or puff pastry cut into strips laid in a cross pattern over the fish, with a border around the edge.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold fish
Forms the bulk of the pie and sets into tender flakes when baked.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour that seasons the fish layers.
Melted butter or white sauce
Adds moisture and richness so the filling does not dry out in the oven.
Breadcrumbs or puff pastry
Form a crisp, browned topping that seals the filling.

The step that matters

Covering the filling with breadcrumbs or pastry. The topping must be browned and sealed at the edge; a loose or thin cover lets the moisture escape or the filling dry out, and pastry needs a well-sealed border to puff and crisp properly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, oyster, pepper, parsley, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, oyster, pepper, parsley, 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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