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Fish Custards

Fish custards are mashed whitefish mixed with almonds, lemon, egg whites, and cream, formed into rolls or cups and fried or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fish Custards

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine the mashed whitefish, salt, chopped almonds, lemon juice, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add the un-beaten egg whites and cream, mixing until well combined.

Shape and fry the rolls

  1. Form the mixture into small rolls.

  2. Dip the rolls in egg and coat with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the rolls in hot oil until golden brown.

Make the custard

  1. Fill small custard cups with the mixture.

  2. Place the cups in a pan of boiling water.

  3. Cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with 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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Whitefish + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Almond + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Whitefish
Provides the main body and protein structure that holds the mixture together.
Egg whites
Set when heated, binding the fish and giving the custard its firm structure.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the custard tender rather than dry.
Almonds
Add a bit of crunch and a nutty flavour to the soft fish mixture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the mild fish.

The step that matters

Cook the custard cups gently in the water bath. Egg proteins set as they heat. Too much heat tightens them quickly, making the custard rubbery, grainy, or watery instead of smooth.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whitefish, lemon, pepper, egg, cream):

  1. Walnutfits about as well
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Almondthe original
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against whitefish, lemon, pepper, egg, cream. 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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