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Fish Pies

A baked dish of assorted fish with a creamy gravy, seasoned with salt, cayenne, nutmeg, and curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,050 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Fish Pies

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. Simmer the fish pieces in liquor for a few minutes.

  2. Place a bit of butter at the bottom of the dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the raw fish pieces, forcemeat balls, or seafood in the dish.

  2. Season with salt, cayenne, nutmeg, and curry powder.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Make the gravy and finish

  1. Prepare gravy with the trimmings, adding flour and butter.

  2. Stir in cream or white wine/lemon juice when the pie is baked.

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. Lobster + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 cooks through during baking.
Flour
Thickens the gravy by binding with butter and liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor in the dish and gravy.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth texture when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Stir in cream or white wine/lemon juice when the pie is baked. Adding acid or dairy after baking keeps the sauce bright and smooth. Dairy added to a long-baked dish can curdle or separate if it is overheated, so it is best stirred in once the pie is out of the oven.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, lobster, pepper, flour, cream, white wine):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, lobster, pepper, flour, cream, white wine. 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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