Name: A Remarkably Fine Fish Pie
Ingredients: 2 pounds small eels; 1 slice onion; ¼ teaspoon mace; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; forcemeat (made from eel flesh, 1 anchovy, parsley, lemon peel, ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, 4 ounces butter); flesh of soles, small cod, or dressed turbot; gravy (from boiling eels)

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

A Remarkably Fine Fish Pie

Ingredients

2 pounds small eels
1 slice onion
¼ teaspoon mace
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
forcemeat (made from eel flesh, 1 anchovy, parsley, lemon peel, ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, 4 ounces butter)
flesh of soles, small cod, or dressed turbot
gravy (from boiling eels)

Directions

Prepare the gravy

Boil the eels after cutting the fins close.
Pick the flesh off and add the bones to the boiling liquor with mace, pepper, salt, and onion.
Boil until rich and strain.

Make the forcemeat

Make forcemeat by mixing eel flesh, anchovy, parsley, lemon peel, salt, pepper, and warmed butter.
Spread the forcemeat at the bottom of a dish.

Assemble and bake

Layer the flesh of soles, small cod, or dressed turbot on top of the forcemeat, seasoned with salt and pepper.
Pour the gravy over the layers and bake until cooked.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Anchovy + turbottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together110 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eels: Provide the main flesh and the bones that flavour the gravy.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the forcemeat, keeping it soft and savoury.
Anchovy: Adds a deep savoury depth to the forcemeat.
Soles, small cod, or dressed turbot: Form the main fish layer, providing the body of the pie.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, anchovy, parsley, lemon, butter, turbot):

Thymefits better
Capersfits better
Garlicfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, anchovy, parsley, lemon, butter, turbot. 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.