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Russian Fish Pie

A pastry-wrapped fish pie with flaked white fish, sliced hard-boiled eggs, pepper, salt, lemon juice, sauce, and glazed with egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,889 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Russian Fish Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Roll out the pastry into a square.

  2. Flake the fish and place it in the center of the pastry.

  3. Slice the hard-boiled eggs and lay them on top of the fish.

  4. Season with cold white pepper, salt, and sprinkle with lemon juice.

  5. Add sauce between the fish to moisten.

Shape and bake

  1. Brush the edges of the pastry and fold it up like an envelope.

  2. Turn the pie upside down onto a greased baking sheet.

  3. Mark the top of the pastry with diamond shapes using a knife.

  4. Glaze with egg and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 25 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. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

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

  2. White pepper + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,487 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rough puff pastry
Forms a flaky, layered case that puffs and browns in the oven.
White fish
Provides the main filling, becoming tender and flaky when cooked through.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and a firm, creamy texture to the filling.
Sauce
Moistens the fish so the filling does not dry out during baking.

The step that matters

Add sauce between the fish to moisten. Cooked fish dries out quickly in the oven, and the sauce supplies moisture inside the sealed pastry. Too little leaves the filling dry, while too much can make the pastry soggy from beneath.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, fish, sauce, lemon):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, fish, sauce, lemon. 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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