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Creamed White Fish

A creamy sauce of butter, flour, and cream coats flaked white fish, topped with breadcrumbs and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Creamed White Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Poach the fish

  1. Cover the fish with warm water and add salt, malt vinegar, lemon juice, and lemon rind.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Allow the fish to cool slightly.

  5. Flake the fish into large pieces using two forks.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Mix in the flour until smooth.

  3. Slowly pour in the cream or milk, stirring until thickened and creamy.

  4. Season the flaked fish with salt, white pepper, and cayenne.

  5. Mix the seasoned fish into the sauce.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a buttered dish.

  2. Top with bread crumbs.

  3. Dot with butter.

  4. Place the dish in a water bath.

  5. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

White fish
Forms the flaked body of the dish, providing the main substance and texture.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat and adds flavour and richness to the topping.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce that holds the fish together.
Cream or rich milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and a creamy texture.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Slowly pour in the cream or milk, stirring until thickened and creamy. Adding liquid gradually while stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, malt, vinegar, lemon, butter, flour, cream):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, malt, vinegar, lemon, butter, flour, cream. 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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