Why it works: Egg and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 39% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,895 recipes. The science ↓
Boiled Bass
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the fish
Place the cleaned bass in a saucepan and cover it with water.
Add the salt to the water.
Bring the water to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes.
Check if a fin pulls out easily; if so, remove the fish from the water.
Serve
Transfer the fish to a platter and surround it with the hard-boiled eggs.
Serve with your choice of sauce.
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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Egg + saucetop 39% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,895 recipes
Egg and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,895 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 protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks in the simmering water.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the fish is flavoured through its flesh.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Served alongside the fish as a mild, rich accompaniment that balances its delicate flavour.
The step that matters
Checking for doneness. Overcooked fish becomes dry and flaky, while undercooked fish stays translucent near the bone. The fin test gives a quick sign of doneness, so check it before lifting the fish out.
“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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