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Pike, Baked

A whole pike stuffed with veal forcemeat, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Pike, Baked

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 the fish

  1. Wash, clean, and scale the fish, and remove the gills.

  2. Fill the inside with forcemeat and sew the opening shut.

  3. Brush the fish with beaten egg and cover with breadcrumbs.

  4. Truss the fish in a round shape, fastening the tail in the mouth with a skewer if desired.

Bake and serve

  1. Baste the fish well with hot fat or butter before placing it in the oven.

  2. Baste frequently and keep covered with greased paper while cooking.

  3. Bake gently at 350°F (175°C) for 40 to 45 minutes.

  4. Serve with a suitable 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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,845 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pike
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole so its flesh stays moist inside.
Veal forcemeat
Fills the cavity, adding moisture and richness as the fish cooks.
Egg
Brushed on the fish to help the breadcrumbs adhere and form a golden crust.
Brown breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating that adds texture and helps the crust brown.
Butter or fat
Basting adds moisture and richness and promotes browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Baste frequently and keep covered. Fish is lean and dries out quickly in dry heat. Regular basting with fat and keeping it covered with greased paper retains moisture while the surface still browns.

“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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