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Fish a LA Creme

A boiled fish served with a creamy sauce of flour, cream, lemon, onion, parsley, nutmeg, butter, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Fish a LA Creme

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,037 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fish a LA Creme

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.

Poach the fish

  1. Rub the fish with coarse sea salt.

  2. Place the fish in a kettle with enough boiling water to cover it.

  3. Once the water boils, reduce the heat and let the fish simmer for 1 hour.

  4. Remove the fish and carefully draw out all the bones.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, mix 1 ounce of flour with 1 quart of cream or milk until smooth.

  2. Add the juice of 1 lemon, chopped onion, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cook over heat, stirring until it thickens.

  4. Stir in ¼ pound of butter.

  5. Strain the sauce through a sieve.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place a little sauce on a dish.

  2. Lay the fish on top.

  3. Pour the remaining sauce over it.

  4. Beat the egg whites to a froth.

  5. Spread the froth over the fish.

  6. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or until light brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the cream into a smooth, stable sauce.
Cream or milk
Forms the body of the sauce and adds richness and moisture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the finished sauce.
Whites of 6 eggs
Beaten to a froth, they set into a light topping that browns in the oven.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich cream sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce until it thickens, then strain it. Flour needs sustained heat and stirring to swell and thicken the cream without lumps. Straining removes any remaining lumps or cooked bits, leaving a smooth sauce.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, flour, cream, lemon, parsley, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  2. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  3. Arrowrootbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, cream, lemon, parsley, nutmeg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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