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Fish Pudding

A steamed fish pudding made with boiled fish, truffles, mushrooms, cream sauce, and served with boiled French potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish and mould

  1. Boil three pounds of rock until just underdone; remove, cool, skin off, and flake into fine pieces.

  2. Peel and cut 1/2 can of truffles and 1 can of mushrooms into rose and star shapes.

  3. Grease a 3‑pint fluted pudding mould and arrange the truffle and mushroom shapes around its sides.

Make the pudding

  1. Finely chop most of the mushrooms with parsley and mix them with the fish; add the cut truffles to the sauce.

  2. Whisk together a full tablespoon of flour and a medium tablespoon of butter; bring 1/2 pint of milk to a boil and stir it into the flour‑butter mixture.

  3. Pour the sauce over the fish, season with pepper and salt, and place the mixture into the prepared mould.

  4. Cover the mould tightly and steam in a pot of boiling water until the water reaches two‑thirds of the mould’s height, for ½ hour.

Make the gravy and potatoes

  1. In a separate pot, boil 1/2 pint of cream with the mushroom water; stir in a tablespoon of flour and a tablespoon of butter, add the remaining truffles and mushrooms, and simmer 10–15 minutes; season with pepper and salt.

  2. Boil 1 quart of French potatoes in salted water until done, then drain.

Serve

  1. To serve, pour the fish pudding onto a platter, arrange the boiled potatoes around it, and ladle the gravy into a sauce bowl.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

368Calories
13 gProtein
14 gFat
51 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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 Margaret Brown. 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Cream + potatotop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Rock fish
Forms the body of the pudding, setting into a soft, flaky texture when cooked.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the milk and cream sauces so they cling to the fish and gravy.
Butter (in the method)
Enriches the sauces and adds richness and flavour to the pudding and gravy.
Milk
Forms the base of the white sauce that moistens the fish mixture.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the gravy.
Mushrooms (in the method)
Adds earthy flavour and moisture to the pudding and decorates its sides.

The step that matters

Steam the pudding gently in a tightly covered mould. Boiling water must stay at a steady simmer around the mould, with the lid sealed; vigorous boiling or a loose cover can let water in and make the pudding watery or dense.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, potato, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Dillfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, potato, 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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