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Fish Pie — or Mutchlke Ka Pie

A baked fish pie with mashed potato topping and oysters, seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and oyster work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 496 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Pie — or Mutchlke Ka 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Assemble and bake

  1. In a pie dish, place a layer of mashed potatoes at the bottom.

  2. Carefully separate the fish from the skin and bones, then lay it on the potatoes.

  3. Spread the oysters on top of the fish.

  4. Season with pepper and salt, then spread a little melted butter over the whole.

  5. Cover with another layer of mashed potatoes.

  6. Bake until golden brown.

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

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 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

Cod or other fish
Forms the main body of the pie, supplying the flaky filling layer.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour that seasons the fish layer.
Mashed potatoes
Form the top and bottom layers, giving a soft base and a crust that browns in the oven.
Butter or ghee
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top layer brown.

The step that matters

Cover with another layer of mashed potatoes.. The top layer seals in the fish and oysters, keeping the filling moist while the surface browns. A thin or uneven cover can leave the filling dry or exposed to the heat.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

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