Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Boiled Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Wrap the fish in a cloth and tie it with twine.
Place the wrapped fish in a pot and cover with cold water, ensuring it's more than 2 inches deep.
Add flour, butter, onion, and parsley to the water.
Boil and make the sauce
Boil the fish until cooked through.
In a separate pan, combine egg yolks, lemon juice, a pinch of mace, and ½ cup of the boiling water.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.
Serve
Pour the sauce over the boiled fish before serving.
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.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat, giving it a smooth, rich body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the yolks.
- Flour
- Adds body to the cooking liquid, helping it hold together around the fish.
- Butter
- Adds fat and a rounded richness to the cooking liquid and sauce.
The step that matters
Cook the sauce over low heat, stirring constantly. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if they get too hot they can scramble into lumps. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the sauce turns smooth and thick.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, flour, butter, onion, parsley, egg, lemon):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Thymefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, butter, onion, parsley, egg, lemon. 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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