Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Boiled Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scale and clean the fish, then wash it well in cold water.
Wipe the fish dry and rub it with a little coarse sea salt.
Sew the fish up in a single piece of cheesecloth.
Cook and serve
Place the fish in a kettle and cover it with boiling salted water.
Cook very slowly for 10 minutes per pound.
Drain the fish and turn it onto a hot platter.
Garnish with lemon and parsley.
Serve with drawn butter mixed with chopped hard boiled eggs or your favorite sauce.
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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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,889 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in simmering water until flaky.
- Drawn butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the mild fish when served alongside it.
- Hard boiled eggs
- Adds texture and richness to the butter sauce served with the fish.
The step that matters
Cook very slowly for 10 minutes per pound. Keeping the water barely simmering lets the fish cook evenly and stay moist. Boiling vigorously toughens the delicate protein and can break the fish apart.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, lemon, butter, egg):
- Parsleythe original
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Capersfits less well
- Nutmegfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, lemon, butter, egg. 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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