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Pike Au Bleu, or Court Bouillon

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pike Au Bleu, or Court Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dress the pike in the same sauce as salmon.

  2. Serve with oil and vinegar or caper sauce after boiling in court bouillon.

  3. For a stuffed version, prepare a farce and fill the pike.

  4. Bake the fish, basting occasionally with butter until done.

  5. Mix bread crumbs with pepper, coarse sea salt, and chopped parsley.

  6. Ten minutes before serving, sprinkle the mixture over the pike.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sauce, bread, pepper, butter):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sauce, bread, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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