Why it works: Bread and fish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Fish Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Skim the soup stock carefully and heat it to boiling.
Add the minced fish, pepper, and coarse sea salt, then let it simmer.
Prepare the milk and egg
Heat the milk in a double boiler until hot.
Pour the hot milk over the beaten egg and mix well.
Finish and serve
Add the milk mixture and bread crumbs to the hot stock and serve.
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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Fish + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg
- Binds the milk mixture and helps thicken the soup as it is stirred in.
- Bread crumbs
- Thicken the soup and give it body.
- Fish
- Provides the main flavour and the soft, flaked texture of the soup.
- Milk
- Adds richness and a mild, creamy body to the broth.
The step that matters
Pour the hot milk over the beaten egg and mix well. If the egg is poured into very hot liquid without first being diluted, it can scramble into small lumps. Adding hot milk gradually while mixing warms the egg gently so it blends smoothly into the soup.
“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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