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Boiled Fish

A simple boiled fish seasoned with flour, pepper, salt, vinegar, and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Boiled Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Wash the fish quickly in cold water and wipe dry.

  2. Dredge the fish lightly with flour and pepper.

  3. Roll the fish in a napkin.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the fish in a quart of boiling water with a little salt and vinegar.

  2. Cook for about 10 minutes per pound for fresh fish.

  3. Serve on a platter garnished with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Is the main protein; poaching in simmering liquid cooks it gently and keeps it moist.
Flour
Light dusting helps the surface stay intact and gives a slight texture to the outside.
Vinegar
A small amount adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Placing the fish in boiling water. Fish is delicate, and the water must be at a full boil when the fish goes in so the outside sets quickly and the flesh does not fall apart or become waterlogged. Keeping the water at a steady simmer afterward avoids toughening the fish.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Turmericfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, pepper, vinegar. 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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