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Fish Pate

A creamy fish pate made with boiled white fish, water, cream, cornstarch, butter, onion, parsley, nutmeg, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Pate

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil the white fish, then remove the skin and bones.

  2. Pique the fish into small pieces.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the water from boiling the fish and the cream (or milk).

  2. Add enough cornstarch to create a creamy batter.

  3. If using milk, add the butter.

Season and combine

  1. Stir in the grated onion, chopped parsley, grated nutmeg, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

  2. Finally, mix in the fish pieces.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

White fish
Forms the main body of the pâté, providing protein and flaky texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a creamy batter that holds the pâté together.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a smooth, soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the batter when milk is used.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness.

The step that matters

Add the cornstarch gradually. Cornstarch thickens only when heated, and too much at once can leave lumps or a stiff, gluey texture. Adding it a little at a time until the batter is creamy gives a smooth result.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, cream, butter, egg, milk, parsley, nutmeg):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Leekbetter flavor fit
  3. Chivebetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, cream, butter, egg, milk, parsley, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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