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Fish and Oyster Pie

A savory pie made with cold fish, oysters, breadcrumbs, and seasonings, baked with butter or sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish and Oyster Pie

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. Remove bones from the fish.

  2. Place a layer of fish in a pie dish.

  3. Sprinkle with pepper and salt.

Layer the pie

  1. Add a layer of breadcrumbs, oysters, nutmeg, and chopped parsley.

  2. Repeat layers until the dish is full.

  3. Before sealing, pour in melted butter or thin white sauce and oyster liquor.

  4. Cover with browned breadcrumbs or puff pastry.

  5. Cut the pastry into strips for a lattice top.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 45 minutes if using cooked fish, or 1 hour if using fresh fish and puff pastry.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the pie and provides the savoury base of the filling.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour and moisture that runs through the layers.
Breadcrumbs
Soak up cooking liquid and help bind the layers, while browned crumbs add a crisp top.
Melted butter or thin white sauce
Adds richness and moisture so the filling does not dry out in the oven.
Puff pastry (in the method)
Bakes into a flaky, golden crust that seals the pie.

The step that matters

Adding the liquid before sealing. Pouring in the melted butter or white sauce and oyster liquor before covering lets the filling stay moist as it heats. Too little liquid can leave the fish dry, while the pastry or crumbs then seal the pie in place.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, oyster, pepper, parsley, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, oyster, pepper, parsley, butter. 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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