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Potted Fish

A cold fish dish mixed with butter, vinegar, tarragon, anchovies, peppercorns, and salt, served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Potted Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fish paste

  1. Pound the fish until very fine.

  2. Mix in the pounded anchovies, tarragon, vinegar, pepper, and salt.

  3. Add the melted butter and mix well.

Pot and serve

  1. Transfer to a small dish and pour a little melted butter over the top.

  2. When cold, garnish with anchovy butter.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Tarragon + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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 paste, giving the potted fish its texture when pounded fine.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and when poured over the top it seals the dish.
Anchovies
Contribute a deep savoury flavour that enriches the fish without tasting strongly of fish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Pouring the melted butter over the top. Butter that is poured on while still liquid and then left to cool forms a solid layer that seals the surface. This keeps air out and helps the potted fish stay fresh.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, vinegar, tarragon, 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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