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Fish Pudding, English Way

A baked fish pudding made with haddock, butter, eggs, bread, onion, milk, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Pudding, English Way

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the haddock finely.

  2. Beat the butter and egg yolks until foamy.

  3. Add the soaked bread, stewed onion, milk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg to the mixture.

  4. Fold in the whipped egg whites and chopped fish.

Cook

  1. Pour the mixture into a pudding form.

  2. Boil in a kettle with boiling water for 15 minutes.

  3. Then place in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Forms the body of the pudding and sets to a tender, flaky texture when cooked.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help bind it as the proteins set during cooking.
Egg whites
Whipped air lightens the mixture and helps it rise and set with a soft texture.
Bread
Soaked and squeezed bread adds body and moisture, giving the pudding a softer crumb.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and contributing to a smooth texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mixture as it cooks.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while whipped. Folding gently keeps that air in, so the pudding stays light instead of dense and heavy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, butter, egg, bread, milk, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, butter, egg, bread, milk, pepper, nutmeg. 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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