Why it works: Fish and oyster match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 488 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish, shellfish (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 cod
Wipe the cod dry and rub it with lemon juice. Let it sit for 1–2 hours.
Cut the cod into slices and season with spices.
In a skillet, toss the cod slices in fresh butter until firm.
Assemble and bake
Line a pie dish with the pie crust and let it cool.
Place the cooked fish in the pie dish, then add lemon peel, fish jelly, oysters, egg yolks, and slices of butter.
Cover with a top crust and bake at 350 °F (175 °C) for 1 hour or more, depending on size.
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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Fish + oystertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + fishtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,432 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Oyster + eggtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,093 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + oystertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,175 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Lemon + fishtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cod
- Forms the flaky main body of the pie once cooked and set in the filling.
- Fish jelly
- Provides moisture and gelling that helps the filling set into a sliceable texture.
- Oysters
- Adds briny richness and a soft, savoury texture to the filling.
- Egg yolks
- Enriches the filling and helps it thicken and set during baking.
- Fresh butter
- Adds fat for richness and carries flavour through the cod and filling.
The step that matters
Toss the cod in butter until firm. Cooking the cod before it goes into the pie firms its proteins and drives off excess moisture, so the baked pie does not become watery or overcooked.
“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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