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Moulded Fish, Normandy Sauce

Moulded halibut served with a creamy Normandy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Ramblers' club, Minneapolis. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Moulded Fish, Normandy Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove skin and bones from a thick piece of halibut, finely chop the fish, and force through a sieve (there should be 1 cup).

  2. Pound the fish in a mortar, adding gradually the whites of 2 eggs.

  3. Add 1 cup heavy cream, and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into a buttered fish mould, cover with buttered paper, set in a pan of hot water, and bake until the fish is firm.

  2. Transfer to a serving dish and surround with Normandy sauce.

Make the Normandy sauce

  1. To make the Normandy sauce, cook the skin and bones of fish with 3 sliced carrots, 1 sliced onion, a sprig of parsley, a bit of bay leaf, 1 tsp peppercorns, and 2 cups cold water for 30 minutes, then strain; there should be 1 cup.

  2. Melt 2 tbsp butter, add 3 tbsp flour, fish stock, 1 cup heavy cream, and the yolks of 2 eggs.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and Sauternes.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. For the tomato sauce, slice 1 onion and put it in a dish with 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp flour. Brown on the stove.

  2. Pour in 1 qt of strained tomatoes and boil a few minutes.

  3. Strain all through a colander and cook until thickened.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

181Calories
10 gProtein
6 gFat
24 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Ramblers' club, Minneapolis. [from old catalog]. 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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites bind the pounded fish into a firm, sliceable set mould; yolks thicken the sauce.
Heavy cream (in the method)
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the fish and the sauce.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the butter base of the sauces by forming a roux.
Halibut (in the method)
Provides the lean white fish flesh that sets into the moulded body of the dish.

The step that matters

Pound the fish with egg whites and bake gently in a water bath. Egg whites set into a delicate protein network that holds the fish together. Baking in a pan of hot water moderates the heat so the mixture sets evenly and stays tender rather than curdling or turning rubbery.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, carrot, tomato, sauce, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, carrot, tomato, sauce, pepper. 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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