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Fish Pudding

A baked fish dish with cream sauce, cheese, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Fish Pudding

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. Boil the fish for 15 minutes, then remove and flake it finely.

Make the cream sauce

  1. Prepare a cream sauce by melting the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour until well mixed, then gradually add the cream, stirring until it thickens.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the flaked fish and cream sauce until full.

  2. Top with grated cheese and bread crumbs.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until brown.

  4. Serve with additional cream 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the pudding and provides its flavour.
Butter
Fat that combines with flour to start the sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce that holds the fish together.
Cream
Makes the sauce rich and, as it thickens, gives the layers a creamy texture.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that helps the surface brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream sauce. Flour must be fully mixed into the melted butter before the cream goes in, and the cream added gradually while stirring. This prevents lumps and lets the starch thicken the sauce evenly, so it binds the fish rather than separating.

“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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