Why it works: Butter and mushroom match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 12,516 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
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
Clean and scale the fish if necessary, then cut into slices or pieces.
Place the fish in a pie crust with a bunch of sweet herbs and some butter.
Bake the pie
Cover and bake for one hour at 350°F (175°C).
Make the sauce
For the sauce, brown a little flour and butter in a pan.
Add the wine, broth or warm water, mushrooms, sweet herbs, and salt to the pan.
Let the mixture stew gently for thirty minutes.
Add the cod liver or soft roe to the sauce.
Finish the pie
Remove the cover from the pie.
Skim off the fat from the pie.
Take out the herbs from the pie.
Pour the sauce over the fish.
Cover the pie again.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Butter + mushroomtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together12,516 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Wine + mushroomtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,509 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).
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Fish + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together444 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Fish + buttertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,432 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + winetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,517 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Freshwater fish
- Forms the main body of the pie and cooks through in the covered oven.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the fish and sauce.
- Flour
- Browned with butter, it thickens the sauce and adds a toasted flavour.
- Wine
- Adds acidity and aroma that brightens the sauce as it stews.
- Mushrooms
- Add earthy flavour and moisture to the sauce as it simmers.
- Cod liver or soft roe
- Enriches the sauce with rich, savoury flavour and body.
The step that matters
Browning the flour and butter for the sauce. Cooking flour in fat until lightly browned removes raw starch taste and builds nutty flavour. Adding liquid too early, or leaving the roux pale, leaves the sauce floury and thin.
“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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