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To Bake Pike

A whole pike stuffed with forcemeat, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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

  1. Scale the pike and wash it.

  2. Remove the gills.

  3. Open the pike just enough to clean the inside.

  4. Wipe the fish dry.

  5. Let the fish rest in a cool place for 1–2 hours.

Stuff and shape

  1. Fill the body with forcemeat.

  2. Sew the fish up securely.

  3. Curl the fish.

  4. Fasten the tail into the mouth with a skewer.

Coat and bake

  1. Dip the fish in beaten egg yolks seasoned with salt and pepper.

  2. Cover the fish with bread crumbs.

  3. Dip the fish again in beaten egg yolks and breadcrumbs.

  4. Pour melted butter over the fish.

  5. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes, longer if the fish is large.

  6. Do not leave the fish in the oven after it is done; serve immediately.

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

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

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

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

  3. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (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, cooking through to flaky, tender flesh.
Egg yolks
Bind the coating and set into a golden, cohesive crust around the fish.
Forcemeat
Fills the body with a moist, binding stuffing that keeps the fish juicy as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust that protects the fish while it bakes.
Melted butter
Adds fat that promotes browning and a rich flavor on the crust.

The step that matters

Do not leave the fish in the oven after it is done. Fish protein keeps tightening as it sits in heat, so overcooking turns the flesh dry and firm. Serving immediately keeps it moist and tender.

“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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