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To Bake Pike

A stuffed pike baked with forcemeat, eggs, breadcrumbs, and clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

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 and wash the pike, then remove the gills.

  2. Open the fish just enough to empty and clean the inside.

  3. Wipe the fish dry and hang it in a cool place for 1‑2 hours or wrap it in a soft cloth.

Stuff and coat

  1. Fill the body with the chosen forcemeat and sew it up securely.

  2. Curl the fish and fasten the tail into the mouth with a thin skewer.

  3. Dip the fish in the beaten eggs seasoned with salt and pepper.

  4. Cover the fish with bread crumbs, then dip it again in the egg and crumbs.

  5. Pour clarified butter over the fish through a small strainer.

Bake and serve

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

  2. Do not leave the fish in the oven after it is done.

  3. Serve with melted butter and brown caper or Dutch sauce.

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 its flesh becomes firm and flaky.
Eggs
Bind the egg-and-crumb coating so it adheres to the fish and sets to a golden crust.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when baked in butter.
Clarified butter
Conducts heat to the coating and promotes even browning and a rich flavor.
Forcemeat
Adds moisture and richness to the interior as it cooks inside the fish.

The step that matters

Do not leave the fish in the oven after it is done. Fish protein keeps tightening as it cooks, so overbaking dries the flesh and makes it tough. Removing it promptly keeps it moist.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, egg, pepper, bread, butter, sauce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, egg, pepper, bread, butter, sauce. 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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