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Fish with Spinach

A baked dish of shredded halibut in cream sauce layered over spinach and topped with grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fish with Spinach

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the spinach as you would for a vegetable.

  2. Make a cream sauce using cream instead of soup stock. Add seasoning to the cream sauce and mix the cream sauce well.

  3. Bring the cream sauce to a boil.

  4. Boil the halibut and shred the halibut.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the halibut with enough cream sauce to resemble creamed fish. Add mustard and sherry to the fish mixture.

  2. Line the bottom of a pudding dish with spinach.

  3. Add the fish mixture to the pudding dish. Cover with a thick layer of grated American cheese.

  4. Brown in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sherry + cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  3. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  4. Spinach + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Halibut
Forms the main body of the casserole and provides the fish flavor and texture.
Cream sauce
Binds the shredded fish into a creamy mixture and keeps it moist during baking.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich creamy fish mixture.
Grated american cheese
Melts over the top and browns in the oven, adding richness and a golden crust.
Spinach
Forms a vegetable base layer that adds moisture and a mild, earthy flavor.

The step that matters

Bring the cream sauce to a boil. Cream sauce thickens as its starch swells when heated to a boil; if it is undercooked it stays thin and will not bind the fish into a creamy mixture.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, cheese, cream, sauce):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, cheese, cream, sauce. 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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