Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,057 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fish and sauce
Boil the fish until cooked, then remove the bones and flake the fish.
In a saucepan, combine milk, thyme, parsley, and onion; simmer until well flavored.
In a separate bowl, wet the flour and stir it into the butter over low heat until thickened.
Strain the milk mixture into the flour mixture, then stir in the egg yolks and season with pepper and salt.
Assemble and bake
In a pudding dish, layer some sauce, then fish, repeating until full, finishing with sauce on top.
Cover with rolled crackers and sprinkle with cheese if desired.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until browned.
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.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + buttertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,432 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Thyme + oniontop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together11,172 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Fish + milktop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,417 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White fish
- Forms the flaked body of the pudding, providing the main protein and substance.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the thyme, parsley and onion flavors.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a smooth sauce that holds the layers together.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the flour roux, giving the sauce a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
- Egg yolks
- Enriches the sauce and helps it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
The step that matters
Stirring the egg yolks into the sauce. Egg yolks thicken and set when heated, but if the sauce is too hot when they are added, they can scramble into lumps. Let the sauce cool slightly before stirring them in.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, milk, thyme, parsley, flour, butter, egg):
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Shallotbetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, thyme, parsley, flour, butter, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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