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
Remove the gills and clean the fish thoroughly.
Soak the fish in a mixture of 1 cup vinegar and enough water to cover it for 30 minutes.
Dry the inside of the fish and fill it with oyster or veal forcemeat.
Curl the fish and fasten the tail in the mouth.
Boil and serve
Place the fish in a pot and cover it with cold water.
Add salt as soon as the water boils and skim the surface.
Boil gently for 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size of the fish.
Serve with melted butter, sauce-cruets, and lemon, or with Dutch, brown caper, or anchovy sauce.
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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Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together496 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Vinegar + fishtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,036 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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Vinegar + oystertop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Vinegar
- Its acidity firms the fish flesh and helps keep it from breaking up while it cooks.
- Forcemeat
- Fills the cavity with a moist, savoury stuffing that flavours the fish as it cooks.
The step that matters
Boil gently. Vigorous boiling breaks up the delicate flesh and can split the fish, so the water should stay just below a rolling boil. Gentle heat cooks the fish evenly and keeps it moist and intact.
“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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