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Halibut on Toast

A dish of boiled halibut mixed with butter and eggs, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Halibut on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the halibut

  1. Put one pound of fresh halibut into boiling salted water.

  2. Cook slowly for fifteen minutes, or until done.

  3. Remove from the water and chop the halibut finely.

Mix the filling

  1. Add half a cup of melted butter and eight eggs well beaten.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Place a thick-bottomed frying pan over the fire containing a tablespoonful of cold butter.

  2. When the butter begins to melt, tip the pan to grease the sides.

  3. Put the fish and eggs into the pan and stir one way until the eggs are cooked, but not too hard.

  4. Turn over toast that has been dipped in hot salted water.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

326Calories
34 gProtein
20 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Halibut100g cooked140
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Halibut
Forms the main body of the dish and gives it a flaky texture once cooked.
Eggs
Bind the chopped fish together and set into a soft, cohesive mass when heated.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and greases the pan so the mixture does not stick.

The step that matters

Stir the fish and eggs one way until just cooked. Eggs turn firm and dry when overheated, because their proteins tighten and squeeze out moisture. Stirring steadily over gentle heat keeps the curds soft and evenly set.

“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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