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1. Boiled Fish.

Boiled fish cooked in salted water with vinegar, served with a Hollandaise sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

1. Boiled Fish.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Use thick pieces of large fish for boiling, or if small fish are used they may be boiled whole.

  2. Wrap the fish in cheesecloth to prevent breaking apart, and plunge into boiling water.

Poach

  1. Add salt and vinegar to water in proportion of 1 tablespoonful of salt and two of vinegar to three quarts of water. Use enough water to cover the fish.

  2. Do not let the water boil after fish is in.

  3. The fish is done when the flesh leaves the bone or when the flesh flakes apart easily.

  4. The usual time for a thick piece is 30-40 minutes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Make as for white sauce, adding the beaten eggs just before taking from fire and stirring until well thickened.

  2. Add lemon juice just before serving.

  3. The sauce is suitable for boiled fish and vegetables.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

697Calories
28 gProtein
15 gFat
112 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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 Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley. 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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Beaten into the white sauce, they thicken it as they set with gentle heat.
Flour
Forms the base of the white sauce, thickening it as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Keep the water below a boil once the fish is in. Boiling water toughens and breaks up delicate fish flesh, so gentle simmering keeps the pieces intact and tender while they cook through.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, flour, vinegar. 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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