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Boiled Bass

A whole bass is boiled with vinegar, peppercorns, mace, and salt, then served with drawn butter, capers, chopped egg yolks, and mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and capers are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,637 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Bass

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sew the bass in a piece of mosquito netting fitted to its shape.

  2. In a fish kettle, combine boiling water, vinegar, peppercorns, mace, and salt.

Cook

  1. Cook the fish for 10 minutes per pound, plus an additional 10 minutes.

  2. Remove the cloth and place the fish on a hot dish.

Serve

  1. Pour drawn butter over the fish, seasoned with capers and chopped egg yolks.

  2. Serve with mashed potatoes.

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 + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Vinegar + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,453 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Capers + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Mace + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Mace and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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

Bass
The main ingredient; gentle poaching cooks its flesh into moist, flaky pieces.
Drawn butter
Adds moisture and richness to the lean fish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the poaching liquid, brightening the mild flavour of the fish.
Capers
Add a sharp, salty bite that cuts through the rich butter.

The step that matters

Timing the poach. Fish proteins set as they heat and squeeze out moisture when overcooked, so the fish turns dry and tough. Weighing the fish and counting time per pound helps keep the flesh tender and flaky.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, butter, capers, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter, capers, egg. 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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