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 ↓
To Bake Pike
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fish
Scale and wash the pike, remove the gills, and open it just enough to clean the inside.
Wipe the fish dry and hang it in a cool place for 1–2 hours or wrap it in a soft cloth.
Fill the body with forcemeat and sew it up securely, curling it and fastening the tail into the mouth with a skewer.
Coat the fish
Dip the fish in beaten eggs seasoned with salt and pepper.
Cover the fish with bread crumbs.
Dip the fish again in beaten eggs and breadcrumbs.
Pour clarified butter over the fish.
Bake and serve
Bake in a preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes, longer if the fish is large.
Serve with melted butter and brown caper or Dutch sauce.
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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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,545 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pike
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole so it stays moist inside the coating.
- Forcemeat
- Fills the cavity, adding moisture and richness so the fish stays tender as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the bread crumbs to the fish, forming a crisp, even coating.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a golden, crisp crust that browns in the oven.
- Clarified butter
- Adds fat that promotes browning and a rich flavour on the crust.
The step that matters
Dipping in egg and crumbs twice. Egg proteins set when heated and hold the crumbs in place. A second coat gives a thicker, more even crust that is less likely to fall off or leave bare patches during baking.
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, egg, pepper, bread, butter):
- Parsleythe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Capersfits less well
- Sagefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, egg, pepper, bread, 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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