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Fish Pudding

A steamed pudding made with fish, eggs, cream, crackers, parsley, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 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 crackers

  1. Boil the fish until cooked, then let it cool.

  2. Shred the cooled fish into small pieces.

  3. Soak the soda crackers in water, then press them to remove excess moisture.

Mix and steam

  1. Mix the shredded fish with the soaked crackers, eggs, parsley, and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Butter a mold generously and pour the mixture into it.

  3. Steam the pudding for 3 to 4 hours.

  4. Serve with cream sauce.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

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

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable pudding when steamed.
Fish
Provides the main body and flavor of the pudding.
Soda crackers
Absorb moisture and add body so the pudding holds together lightly.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, served as the sauce.

The step that matters

Pressing the soaked crackers. Excess water left in the crackers would thin the mixture and make the pudding loose and watery after steaming. Pressing them dry lets the eggs set the pudding firmly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, cream, 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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