Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Fish Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the jelly
Boil the inferior parts of the fish in water until it forms a jelly.
Strain the jelly and season it with plenty of pepper and some salt.
Assemble and bake
Place the fish in a pie dish, add fresh butter and the flesh of the anchovies.
Pour the jelly over the fish and cover with a rim and lid of pie crust.
Bake until the crust is nicely browned.
If not serving immediately, you can re-bake it in a few days to maintain flavor.
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,948 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Inferior parts of fish
- Boiling them releases gelatin that sets the jelly around the fish.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the pie.
- Flesh of anchovies
- Adds deep savory saltiness that seasons the fish and jelly.
- Pie crust
- Encloses the filling and browns in the oven for structure and color.
The step that matters
Boil the fish until it forms a jelly. The jelly must set firmly once cooled, which depends on the fish releasing enough gelatin during a long, gentle boil. Under-boiling leaves the filling loose and runny when cut.
“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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