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Steamed Fish

A simple steamed fish seasoned with lemon, salt, pepper, butter, and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Steamed Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and skin the fish, then truss it according to its type.

  2. Place the fish on a buttered plate.

  3. Sprinkle with salt and lemon juice, and add a few pats of butter.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover with a basin and place over a pan of boiling water.

  2. Allow to steam for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Pour the liquid over the fish and serve, 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

White fish
Forms the main body of the dish; its protein firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries flavor as it melts over the fish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Steam for 20 to 30 minutes. Fish cooks quickly with gentle steam, and it becomes dry and tough if left too long. Check it early and remove it once the flesh turns opaque and flakes easily.

“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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