Skip to main content
Main

Fish Creamed

A creamy fish dish made with butter, onion, parsley, flour, milk, wine, egg yolk, and hot cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Fish Creamed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil fish in court bouillon until cooked, then let it cool.

  2. Pick the fish into small pieces, discarding bones and skin.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt butter and add onion juice and parsley.

  2. Stir in flour and cook until bubbling, then gradually add milk or fish stock.

  3. Season with salt, cayenne, and add white wine or lemon juice.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in egg yolk and hot cream until blended.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fold in the fish pieces and fill coquille or ramekin dishes.

  2. Top with browned crumbs and serve very hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the flour-thickened base and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk or stock into a smooth white sauce.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce, giving it a creamy body.
Hot cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the sauce.
Milk or fish stock
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into the sauce.
Cooked fish
Provides the main body and flavor of the dish.

The step that matters

Remove from heat before adding the egg yolk and cream. Egg yolk can scramble if it meets very hot liquid. Removing the sauce from heat first and stirring the yolk and cream in gently lets it thicken smoothly without curdling.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, parsley, flour, milk, pepper, 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.

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesBroiled FishBroiled Fish68 recipes