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Catfish Soup

A savory soup made with catfish, bacon, onion, parsley, eggs, butter, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Catfish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Take two large or four small catfish that have been caught in deep water.

  2. Cut off the heads of the catfish. Skin and clean the bodies of the catfish.

  3. Cut each catfish into three parts.

Make the soup

  1. Put the catfish parts in a pot with one pound lean bacon, one large onion cut up, a handful of parsley chopped small, some pepper and salt.

  2. Pour in a sufficient quantity of water.

  3. Stew the fish until they are quite tender, but not broken.

  4. Take out the bacon.

Thicken and serve

  1. Beat the yolks of four fresh eggs. Add a large spoonful of butter to the beaten yolks.

  2. Add two of flour to the mixture. Add half a pint of rich milk to the mixture.

  3. Warm the mixture and thicken the soup.

  4. Put some of the fish in the tureen. Pour the soup into the tureen.

  5. Serve the soup.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

417Calories
19 gProtein
28 gFat
23 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Eggs1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. See the original page.

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

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

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Catfish (in the method)
Forms the main body of the soup and becomes tender through slow stewing.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the soup as they warm, adding body and richness.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the soup once it is combined with the yolks.
Lean bacon
Flavours the stewing liquid with savoury, smoky fat while the fish cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel to the enriched soup.

The step that matters

Warm the egg mixture gently and thicken the soup. Egg yolks set when heated. If the soup gets too hot after the yolks go in, they can curdle and turn grainy instead of smoothly thickening the soup.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, butter, milk, 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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