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Salad

Mayonnaise Fish

Pieces of cold boiled fish served with a boiled egg yolk and vinegar dressing and lettuce leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mayonnaise Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Rub the yolks of four boiled eggs to a smooth paste with salad oil or butter.

  2. Add salt, pepper, mustard and two teaspoonfuls of white sugar to the paste.

  3. Add six tablespoonfuls of vinegar, last of all.

  4. Beat the mixture until light.

  5. Just before pouring it over the fish, stir in lightly the frothed white of a raw egg.

Prepare and serve

  1. Cut a pound or so of cold boiled fish (halibut, rock or cod) into pieces an inch in length, not chopped.

  2. Serve the fish in a glass dish with half the dressing stirred in.

  3. Spread the remaining dressing over the top and lay lettuce leaves from the core of the head around the edges, to be eaten with it.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

918Calories
65 gProtein
22 gFat
110 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Pork100g cooked242
Cod100g cooked82
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Pork + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,445 recipes

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

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cod
Forms the flaky body of the dish, cut into pieces so it stays intact.
Eggs
Yolks form a smooth, rich dressing; the beaten white adds lightness and froth.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.
Fat pork
Renders fat that carries flavour into the pot of chowder base.

The step that matters

Stirring in the frothed egg white. Folding the white in lightly, just before serving, keeps its trapped air so the dressing stays light; overmixing collapses the foam and makes it dense.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, flour, egg, pork, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, flour, egg, pork, 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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