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Fish Mould

A steamed fish casserole made with shredded fish, butter, flour, milk, egg, anchovy essence, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Shred the fish finely.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour and stir in the milk gradually.

  3. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

Mould and steam

  1. Add the fish, anchovy essence, salt, pepper, and beaten egg.

  2. Turn the mixture into a buttered mold sprinkled with brown bread crumbs. Steam for 45 minutes.

Serve

  1. Turn out onto a hot dish and serve with egg 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, 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 mould and gives it its savoury flavour.
Butter
Enriches the sauce base and adds richness to the mould.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that holds the mixture together.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the white sauce, giving a soft, moist texture.
Egg
Sets during steaming, binding the fish and sauce into a firm mould.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg to the sauce. If the sauce is still very hot when the egg goes in, the egg can scramble and leave lumps. Letting the sauce cool slightly before adding the egg keeps the mixture smooth and lets it set evenly when steamed.

“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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